BAIKONUR COSMODROME --The first International Space Station (ISS) crew and their backup team tried the Soyuz spacecraft that will carry them to the outpost on for size last week and found it a perfect fit.
"Everything looked perfect," ISS flight engineer Sergey Krikalev, told SPACE.com. "We just had to move a few cables inside the cabin to a more comfortable location."
The main crew consists of mission commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz spacecraft commander Yuri Gidzenko and Krikalev. The backup crew is mission commander Ken Bowersox, Soyuz spacecraft commander Vladimir Dezhurov and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin.
"This "trying on" of a spacecraft is a standard prelaunch procedure," Yuri Gidzenko said. "We put on our spacesuits, checked their airtightness, climbed into our spacecraft and sat into our chairs while dressed in the spacesuits."
Next step was to put the seats in landing position while seated in them and to see whether there is enough space between the knees of flight engineer and Soyuz vehicle commander, and the control panel. This space should be at least 1.2 inches (3 centimeters).
Although the first ISS crew is supposed to return to earth via space shuttle, the Soyuz will deliver the cosmonauts and astronaut to the station. Anchored at the station, the Russian craft will be used as a lifeboat by the crew members in case of emergency. For this reason the crew is supposed to be equally familiar with both liftoff and landing procedures in Soyuz.
The first Soyuz spacecraft will remain attached to the ISS after this crews departure and will provide a "safety net" for at least few more crews until it is replaced by another Soyuz.
Who does what?
One of the most intriguing issues related to the work of the permanent U.S.-Russian crews aboard ISS, is how they will structure their joint activities on the orbital outpost.
To help Russia to meet its ISS obligations, NASA revised the fiscal year 1998 Operating Plan to reallocate $60 million in fiscal year 1998 ISS resources to the Russian Program Assurance Line.
The $60 million dollars did not constitute "humanitarian aid" to the Russian space program. In return for this funding, NASA leased Russian research time and space inside Russian segment through the assembly phase of the ISS.
According to Mikhail Sinelshchikov, Rosaviacosmos Manned Space Programs Department Director, Russia has leased to the United States from 25 to 75 percent of its time at certain stages of ISS assembly, totaling 4,000 hours overall. NASA Associate Administrator for External Relations John Schumacher has estimated that this transfer had basically doubled NASA research time and storage space during the assembly of the station.
Neither main nor backup ISS crews have any idea so far of how they will separate a work on Russian from work on American tasks and experiments.
"Nobody said a word to us regarding this issue," said Krikalev. "The decision of how distribute time between Russian and U.S. activities on board the station will probably be made by the program managers on Earth. If I am asked by Mission Control Center to fasten a bolt inside the station, I wont know, and honestly wont care whether I do it for Russia or for America."
The two crews are supposed to depart for Baikonur on October 26. The first ISS crew launch has already been postponed a day from October 30 to 31 because of the Discovery launch delay.
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