For Space Station Crew, Training Never Ends.

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 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:

* Protein crystals and the nature of proteins, enzymes and viruses--the fundamental building blocks of life.

* Tissue culture and the growth of living cells in space, where they cannot be distorted by gravity.

* Life in low gravity and its long-term effects on humans, other animals and plants.

* Use of centrifuge to create artificial gravity.

* Properties of flames, fluids and metal in space.

* Long-term observations of the Earth from orbit to study large-scale changes in the environment, such as air quality, water quality and deforestation.

In addition to such Earth-oriented research, Rose said, the space station may serve eventually as a launching point to destinations across the solar system, such as the Moon or Mars.

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:

* Canada is providing a 5 5-foot-long-robotic arm to be used for assembly and maintenance tasks on the station.

* Japan is building a laboratory with an attached, exposed, exterior platform for experiments.

* Brazil and Italy are contributing a variety of equipment.

In addition, the European Space Agency--which is run by 15 nations from that continent--provided the data management system that serves as the brain of the Zvezda service module.

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:

* Other nations participating in the project are contributing about $10 billion.

* NASA'S entire budget, a requested $14 billion for fiscal year 2001, is only a tiny portion of the Federal Government's requested $1.8 trillion budget for the year.

* The space station amounts to less than 16 percent of the NASA budget, costing each taxpayer about $8 per year, officials said.

* Every dollar spent by NASA returns at least $2 in direct and indirect benefits.

One of the benefits of the space station program, according to NASA officials, is that it "taps into the Russians' vast experience in long-duration space flight."

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."