For Space Station Crew, Training Never Ends.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Date: 01 November 2000
• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Published date: 01 November 2000
• Author: Kennedy, Harold

U.S. and Russian astronauts prepare to spend months living, working in orbit

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 nor 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 Zvezda (Russian for "star") service module, which Russia put into place in July after several costly delays, to serve as living quarters and an onboard control center for the station during its early days.

* The U.S.-funded and Russian-built Zarya module, which provides supplementary power and propulsion functions.

* The U.S.-built Node 1, a connecting module that provides attachment points for future U.S. segments of the station.

At the end of their four-month mission, the members of Expedition One are to be relieved by a new crew that is scheduled to arrive via space shuttle in February.

The Expedition One crew is to...