On Oct. 30, a Russian Soyuz rocket was scheduled to blast off from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kasakhstan and deliver the first permanent
crew to the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit 240 miles
above the Earth.
It’s a mission for which the three-person crew–a U.S.
expedition commander and two Russians–have been training for
years. But the training will not stop, not even in space, noted
David Rose, deputy director for ISS training at the Houston-based
United Space Alliance (USA).
A joint venture between the Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin
Corporation, USA manages the day-to-day operation of NASA’s
space shuttle fleet, which is playing a major role in building the
space station.
The shuttles, Rose explained, are the only vehicles in the world
that can perform crew transfer, pressurized cargo delivery and on-orbit
assembly–all critical roles for completion of the station.
The station’s crew members will have to continue training
in space because of the length of the mission, Rose told the International
Training and Education Conference (ITEC) 2000, held earlier this
year in The Hague, Netherlands.
"Each crew will be on the station between four and six months,"
he said. "Some things that the crew needs to know will change
after launch. It’s a given that they will have to take some
training while they’re up there. It’s built into the
plan from the beginning."
At any given time during their mission, Rose said, the crew on
board the station will be able to pass along to the relief crew,
via electronic communication, any information about situations not
anticipated during training on Earth, new techniques or any topic
necessary for life in space.
Once the new crew arrives aboard the station, he said, there will
be a "handover period" familiar to airline and maritime
personnel, when the outgoing team can brief the newcomers on anything
that they need to know.
The first permanent crew–known as Expedition One–is
scheduled to spend four months on board the station, conducting
flight tests and assisting in continued assembly of the station,
which now consists of:
The Expedition One crew is to return to Earth aboard the shuttle,
leaving the Soyuz spacecraft that brought them to serve as an emergency
escape vehicle, if needed.
Assembly of the space station, which began in 1998, will continue
through more than 40 flights until the station’s completion,
now planned for 2005.
When it is finished, the International Space Station will have
about 43,000 cubic feet of habitable, pressurized volume, about
the same size as three average U.S. homes or the interior of a 747
jumbo jet.
Largest Space Craft
In fact, according to NASA, the station will be "the largest
and most complex peacetime international collaboration ever undertaken.
It also will be the largest spacecraft ever built."
Living accommodations on Zveda include personal sleeping quarters
for the crew, a toilet and other hygienic facilities, and a kitchen
with a refrigerator-freezer and a table equipped to secure meals
while eating.
Physical training will not be neglected, Rose pointed out. The
station will include a treadmill and a stationary bicycle for exercise.
When complete, the station will house six laboratories, providing
more space for research than any spacecraft ever built, Rose noted.
It will be more than four times the size of Russia’s Mir
space station, with almost 60 times its electrical power. Examples
of the kinds of research to be conducted on the station include:
The station is a joint operation by 16 nations. In addition to
the United States and Russia, they include: Japan, Canada, Italy,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, Spain, Germany,
Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Brazil. Each of these
nations is making contributions to the station. Examples include:
Developed and manufactured by an industrial consortium led by Daimler-Chrysler,
of Bremen, Germany, this computer system will run the service-module
functions, as well as guidance and navigation systems for the entire
station, at least initially. The U.S. Destiny laboratory, when it
is launched in January 2001, is scheduled to assume management and
control of the station’s operations.
When completed, the station will house an international crew of
up to seven. Any nation participating in the project may contribute
potential crew members, Rose said.
High Standards
To qualify, however, candidates must meet the high medical, educational
and training requirements of NASA’s astronaut corps. Space
station crew members are either pilots or mission specialists.
Both must have at least a bachelor’s degree from an accredited
institution in engineering, biological science, physical science
or mathematics.
Pilots also must have at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command
time in jet aircraft, preferably with flight-testing experience.
Mission specialists need not be pilots, but they must have three
years of progressively responsible experience related to the degree.
An advanced degree is desirable and may be substituted for all or
part of the experience requirement.
Because several hundred applicants fulfill these standards, final
selection is based largely on personal interviews.
Applicants who are selected are assigned to a one to two-year basic
training and evaluation program as astronaut candidates at Johnson
Space Center in Houston. Once that program is completed, those chosen
as astronauts continue to train almost indefinitely, Rose said.
Crews are assembled and trained as a team, Rose said. Crew members
"learn how to divvy up tasks and coordinate with ground control.
They figure out how their role fits in with what everybody else
is doing," he explained.
"Each phase is a challenge for the astronaut–and for
the trainers, too," said Rose. "Each step involves new
equipment and requirements."
The training takes place all over the world, Rose said. Much of
it occurs in Houston, Florida’s Cape Kennedy and Russia’s
Star City–home of that country’s space agency. The crew
also travels to countries supplying major elements of the station
to learn how to operate that equipment.
In addition, the crew trains in various locales to learn how to
cope with specific situations that they might encounter during the
mission. In Russian waters in the Black Sea, for example, they practiced
how to conduct a water landing in a Soyuz spacecraft.
Keeping up with training amidst all of the travel has been tough,
Rose said. "We’re working hard to make sure that the
need to train all over the world doesn’t stretch the crew’s
time frame beyond reason." One way that the crews keep up is
to take CD-ROMs with them wherever they go.
Russian Troubles
Because of the prominent Russian role in the program, training is
conducted in Russian, as well as English, Rose explained. "The
use of Russian was not originally planned," he said. "We
had to struggle to find time to learn it."
Russia’s performance in the space station program, while
high-profile, has been troubled. The country’s economic crisis
left the Russian Space Agency unable to pay for completion of the
critical Zvezda service module. That problem was overcome eventually,
with U.S. assistance.
In 1999, however, on-orbit assembly of the station had to be delayed
because of problems with two Russian unmanned Proton rockets–used
to make deliveries to the facility.
Subsequent Russian launches, including that of the service module
in July of this year, have been successful. Nevertheless, NASA has
initiated an effort to design a U.S. propulsion module to reduce
dependence on Russian spacecraft.
Two leading members of Congress, however, complained earlier this
year that the process is taking too long. Sen. John McCain, R. Ariz.,
and Rep F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.–both chairmen of committees
that oversee federal science programs–requested a review by
the General Accounting Office (GAO), voicing concern "that
technical, cost and schedule risks have not been adequately managed."
Russian nonperformance on the space station program "has cost
U.S. taxpayers an estimated $5 billion and delayed the program by
three years," Sensenbrenner said.
The setback "demonstrates that NASA has failed to learn any
lessons from the cost overruns and delays during the seven-year
development phase" of the station, said McCain.
NASA has estimated that the space station could cost up to $40
billion to build and operate over a 10-year lifespan.
That’s more than twice the expense of building the channel
tunnel between France and Britain. According to a recent GAO report,
however, the cost could rise as high as $98 billion.
NASA officials admitted that the station is more expensive than
originally anticipated. But they argued that:
This, officials said, accomplishes a number of things: It helps
focus Russia’s aerospace industry on non-military pursuits.
It provides work for Moscow’s scientists, engineers and other
technicians, reducing the risk that they will offer their skills
to rogue states, such as North Korea, Iran or Iraq. And it demonstrates
that former adversaries can join forces in a peaceful pursuit at
a fraction of the cost of the arms race during the Cold War.
NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin earlier this year told a congressional
hearing that, although the space station program faces "a number
of challenges," the agency is "committed to moving forward
and completing the [station].
"This year will be a landmark year" for the project,
Goldin said. "We have high expectations that the first crew
will begin to live aboard the station, as the United States and
our partners begin to reap the benefits of long-duration research
in space. We anticipate that, as planned research gets under way,
opportunities for new, unforeseen paths of study will arise."
Only time will tell, whether Goldin’s optimism is justified.
In the meantime, however, the pace is picking up. In 2001 alone,
half a dozen shuttle flights to the station are planned, and excitement
is building among technicians involved with the program.
"Keep watching NASA," Rose said. "This is going
to be an exciting year."