CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Five U.S. astronauts and two Russian cosmonauts will convert shuttle Atlantis into a moving van this week, hauling a household of goods and supplies up to the International Space Station.
Moving companies that are a bit more terrestrial, meanwhile, say they are ready to step in and do the job, and do it at a discount -- if called upon by NASA at the last minute.
Stephen Brand, owner of Brand Storage & Transfer Co. in Rockledge, Fla., gives a thumbs up for the shuttle flight. SPACE.com image.
|
"Put me down on the list, Id love to do it," said Stephen Brand, owner of Brand Transfer & Storage Co. of Rockledge, Florida, which has been doing business 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of NASAs Kennedy Space Center since 1970.
Setting up shop
Once at the outpost, more than three tons of gear will have to be unpacked from both the shuttle shipping container and a Russian Progress space freighter already parked at the outpost.
And then all that gear - which includes everything from food and drinking water to toothbrushes, toothpaste and home office equipment - will have to be stowed in various places around the outpost.
No small amount of set-up work also is involved in the job.
The shuttle crew will be routing electrical and television cables outside the outpost and installing the stations toilet, among other things. Generally speaking, theyll be setting up house for the first full-time station crew, which is due to arrive at the outpost in early November.
"Were going to show up with two big moving vans - the shuttle and a Progress - and weve got five days once weve gotten up there to unload all that stuff, get it put together [and] installed in its proper place," said Atlantis mission specialist Edward Lu.
"Were going to work real hard to stow as much of the things that we can - get them out of the way - so [the first station crew has] room to live and work," added shuttle pilot Scott Altman.
"Right now, the station is pretty full of all the equipment they are going to use in the future, and were going to do as much as we can to put the clutter away - basically, unload the moving boxes so that you have a place to live instead of a house full of boxes."
A moving deal
Nora Kirschner of Magick Movers in West Melbourne, Florida, can certainly relate. Kirschner and her husband, Mark, operate an expert packing, crating and moving service, and the type of set-up work the shuttle crew will be doing wouldnt be too much of a problem, she said.
"We normally put together everything we move, but if a lot of the [station] equipment is coming disassembled, wed hope theyd send along some good instructions."
Nora Kirschner, co-owner of Magick Movers in West Melbourne, Fla., with a U-Haul Truck and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. SPACE.com image.
|
Both Brand and Kirschner, meanwhile, are willing to give NASA a pretty good deal on the move, which will cost the federal government about a half billion dollars.
"Generally, we charge by the hour, and since NASA really would be supplying all the equipment and room and board, too, I imagine wed just charge our normally hourly rates," Kirschner said.
Out comes the calculator for a rough estimate based on shuttle mission duration - 10 days, 20 hours and 14 minutes - and the normal charge of $52 per hour.
"Thatd be about $13,520, but Im sure we could work this out. Im sure wed give them a discount," Kirschner said.
Brand has an even better deal. Based on a 240-mile (386-kilometer) trip straight up, the 7,200 pounds (3,266 kilograms) of cargo in the shuttles payload bay and a special discount on labor, Brand said hed do the job for a mere $7,134.
"They could really save some money," Brand joked.
Neither company would bill NASA for the "long carry" - moving company jargon for hauling articles "excessive distances." And neither would levy higher "peak season" rates that typically are applicable between the end of May and the end of September.
And when it comes to donning a spacesuit and scaling the outside of the station to rig up electrical power and television lines, both companies would agree to waive the normal "flight charge" - an extra chunk of cash for carrying stuff up and down stairs.
After all, the panoramic view from above would be more than a fair trade.
Said Kirscher: "It would be the highlight of my lifetime."
advertisement
