International Space Station Crews Mark Three Years Aboard

International Space Station Crews Mark Three Years Aboard


In a period that has exemplified the benefits of international cooperation
in space, the International Space Station will complete a third year of
permanent human presence aboard on Sunday, Nov. 2.

The third year of humans living aboard the station has been marked by the
perseverance of the orbiting laboratory and international partnership
through the tragedy of the Columbia accident.

"Every endeavour that continuously pushes the boundaries of human achievment
can have times of both great triumph and great tragedy. The space agencies
and nations around the world that are our partners in the Station understand
that and they have experienced it," ISS Program Manager Bill Gerstenmaier
said. "The perseverance of crewed operations aboard the Station this year
has brought the partnership closer together, and it will strengthen the
Station through both the improvements in safety that we plan and the lessons
we learn together."


The eighth resident crew -- Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer Mike
Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri -- began a six-month stay aboard
the complex Oct. 20.

The station remains the largest, most sophisticated and most powerful
spacecraft ever built. Until the Space Shuttle fleet returns to flight, the
transport of supplies and crews to the Station will be conducted by Russian
spacecraft. The majority of power, cooling, volume and research capacity on
the station are supplied by U.S. components. The station has a mass of
almost 400,000 pounds and an interior volume roughly equal to that of a
three-bedroom house. The U.S. Destiny Laboratory now houses seven different
research facilities. The International Space Station partnership includes
NASA; Rosaviakosmos, the Russian Space Agency; the Canadian Space Agency;
the European Space Agency; and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

At the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., 168,000 pounds of additional Station
components are being prepared for launch when the Space Shuttle returns to
flight. Those components will triple the number of science facilities aboard
the orbiting laboratory, increase the total power available for research by
over 80 percent and triple the surface area of the Station's solar arrays.
Among components at KSC is the second Station laboratory, the Japanese
Experiment Module named Kibo.



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Jacques :-)

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