CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A third full-time crew settled into the International Space Station Tuesday, and it didn't take long for the outpost's new skipper to wax poetic about the 16-nation frontier construction project and where it might lead the human race.
"We're on a stairway to the stars, and this particular step may prove to be one of the most significant in human history -- this international program of building this space station, and being able to develop the technologies that will allow us to go further," U.S. astronaut Frank Culbertson said in a space-to-ground interview.
"We don't really know what we're going to find as we move further and further away from Earth. We don't know if we'll find other intelligent beings, or if we're the only ones in the universe," he added. "But either way, it's a pretty thought-provoking subject, and a pretty awesome subject when you really get into it. So we may be on a step that leads to things that will affect humanity forever, and hopefully, in a very, very positive way."
A day after taking the helm at the outpost, Culbertson and his crewmates -- Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin -- started to acclimate to living and working onboard the 17-story station, a linked series of pressurized modules that stretches 171 feet (52 meters) from end to end.
Returning to space after eight years in management, Culbertson marveled at the way his predecessors -- outgoing Russian commander Yuri Usachev and U.S. flight engineers Susan Helms and Jim Voss -- got around the huge complex, which is being built by space agencies in the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan, Canada and Brazil."It's quite amazing to watch them operate here," he said. "These guys can float from one end of the station to the other without touching the walls."
A veteran of two flights on relatively cramped shuttles, Culbertson still was getting used to soaring weightlessly through such an enormous expanse.
"We feel kind of clumsy every once in a while. We still have to kind of push off (the walls) and adjust our trajectory," Culbertson said.
"Sometimes when you're working on the ceiling, you get a little disoriented and have to remind yourself which way the floor is, or which way starboard and port are," he added. "But I suspect after a month or so that we'll be as comfortable up here as we are on Earth."
Taxied to the station aboard shuttle Discovery, Culbertson and his crewmates sped through the first full day of a planned four-month research tour aboard the outpost.
The prime job at hand: Unloading more than three tons of food, clothing, research apparatus and science experiments from a shuttle-borne Italian moving van now mounted to the Earth-facing side of the station's U.S. Unity module.
The move-in work was finished almost a full day ahead of schedule, astonishing mission managers on the ground.
"If there was one word I would use for today, it would be: 'Wow,'" said NASA launch package manager Sharon Castle, who coordinated the loading of the so-called Leonardo shipping container prior to the shuttle's Aug. 10 launch from Kennedy Space Center.
In the midst of all the moving, Usachev and his crewmates briefed their replacements on the operation of station fire suppression systems as well as a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that serves as an outpost lifeboat.
Culbertson and his crew also got a refresher course on station computer, communications and crucial life support systems, such as oxygen generation, carbon dioxide removal, water purification and air conditioning devices.
The Expedition Three crew went through extensive training prior to flight, but the briefings aimed to point up the idiosyncrasies of operating actual systems hardware in orbit.
"Yuri, Jim and Susan of course know everything about the station and how to handle all the systems, so they're helping us learn, and if some big problem came up, they would help us solve it," Culbertson said.
But the outgoing trio now is officially considered part of Discovery's crew, and will primarily reside onboard the shuttle during the rest of its eight-day stay at the station.
"We're living on the station and have moved in to where we're going to be staying for the next four months," Culbertson said. "Officially, we've taken command, and if we had to separate the two vehicles, we would stay and they would go."
And that's just fine with Usachev and his crew, who will be hitching a ride home aboard Discovery. The trio already has been in orbit 159 days.
"After five months it's time to go home," Usachev said, "because there are a lot of people waiting for us -- family and friends."
Discovery is scheduled to depart the station next Monday, heading toward a 12:48 p.m. EDT (1648 GMT) Aug. 22 landing at the shuttle's coastal Florida homeport.
Culbertson and his crew are scheduled to remain in space until Dec. 9.
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