May 27, 2009 -- NASA has been promising a rich scientific harvest from a permanent, well-equipped laboratory in Earth orbit where the absence of gravity would reveal secrets not possible anywhere else. This week, with the International Space Station at full staff for the first time, the clock starts ticking for NASA and its international partners to begin making good on the pledge. A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk and Europe's Frank De Winne blasted off early Wednesday. They are scheduled to arrive at the orbital outpost, a $100 billion project of 16 nations, on Friday, joining station commander Gennady Padalka, NASA flight engineer Michael Barrett and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. The men will serve as the station's first live-aboard six-member crew. "We've been building the International Space Station for 10 years now and we've finally gotten to a point now where it has some incredible laboratory facilities and six people on board the station to do some science," Thirsk said in a preflight interview. Related Content:
Until now, most of the crew's time in orbit was spent just maintaining the station. With the additional help, NASA expects to more than triple the hours available for experiments in the station's three laboratories, ramping up gradually from about 20 hours per week to at least 70 when construction of the station is complete next year. "We do everything in a gradual ramp-up as we learn to operate with a full crew aboard," Mark Uhran, NASA's assistant associate administrator for space station, told Discovery News. But even within the agency, the program has skeptics. "I hope the space station becomes extraordinarily, scientifically productive, but it is not today," said David Leckrone, the senior scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the agency's most successful and well-regarded programs. Get More NewsSpiders, Scorpions Among World's Oldest CreaturesMany creepy crawlies have been on Earth much longer than previously believed.Blood-Sucking Vampire Bats Sing DuetsWhite-winged vampire bats "harmonize" with separated roost mates.Oldest Hebrew Writing Possibly FoundAncient inscriptions on a 3,000-year-old pottery shard could make history.Rare, Prehistoric-Age Reptile Found in N.Z.A tuatara has been spotted on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in 200 years.Iceman Has No Living RelativesOetzi, the 5,300 year-old frozen mummy, left no living genetic legacy.SLIDE SHOW: Landscapes of TerrorWhat makes a place feel scary? There are scientific explanations.It's Official: People Are Warming the PolesHumans are conclusively to blame for polar warming, say scientists.Eight-Armed Animal Preceded DinosaursWhat may be one of Earth's first animals was no bigger than a coaster and had eight arms.Phoenicians Live on in People's GenesOne in 17 Mediterranean men may be descended from ancient Phoenicians.Pesticides, Fertilizers Linked to Frog DeclineA pesticide is found to promote parasites among amphibians.Hubble Telescope Taking Photos AgainThe Hubble Space Telescope is once again snapping stunning photos of the universe.Andean Mummy Hairs Show Hallucinogen UseScientists find direct evidence of hallucinogenic drug use among ancient Andeans.Opals on Mars Reveal Planet's Long Wet PastOpals found on Mars suggest the planet has been wet for much longer. |
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