[sarex] On Board ISS

[K6due@xxxxxxx]

First Residents Enter Space Station

By MARCIA DUNN
.c The Associated Press

KOROLYOV, Russia (Nov. 2) - The first residents of the international space 
station arrived at their new home Thursday, swinging open the doors and 
settling in for a four-month stay.

American astronaut Bill Shepherd, the station's skipper, and Russian 
cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev floated into the space station 
about one and a half hours after their Soyuz capsule docked at 12:21 p.m.

''Attention!'' a translator at Russia's Mission Control called out in English 
as the capsule closed with the station. ''Range six meters, four, three, two 
- contact!''

Mission Control, where about 500 hundred people had jammed into the two-tier 
monitoring hall, erupted in applause as the capsule linked up smoothly with 
the space station 240 miles above the Central Asian nation of Kazakstan, 
where the crew had blasted off Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. A few of 
the Russian engineers hugged one another.

''Joint efforts always bring the best results. All complex tasks have to be 
solved together,'' said Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov.

The launch of the three-man crew generated accolades on all sides. But until 
Thursday's docking, many space officials were hesitant to boast too much or 
too loud.

''This is a huge, huge event,'' said U.S. astronaut Frank Culbertson, who is 
to command a space station mission next year. ''I can't believe after all 
these years we finally are doing what we've been working for so long. It's 
going to take a while, I think, for people to digest the significance of 
this.''

''It's a historical, remarkable day. For the first time, countries have 
joined, have pooled their intellects, to create the international space 
station,'' said Yuri Semyonov, head of the state RKK Energiya company, which 
built the space station's Russian modules.

The capsule locked onto the station about three minutes earlier than the 
planned 12:24 p.m. docking. Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev had to wait an 
hour and a half before floating inside to make sure the seal between the two 
spacecraft was tight.

Their first priorities inside: flipping on all the lights and alarm systems, 
turning on all the life-support systems and - perhaps most important after 
two days in a cramped capsule with no privacy - getting the toilet working. 
Space shuttle astronauts set up the toilet in September, but left the first 
flush for Shepherd and his crew.

The men will spend the next four months living on the space station. Flight 
controllers hope to keep the crew's work schedule light the first few weeks, 
although Krikalev already has battery repairs on tap for Friday.

NASA expects it will take a while before Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalev - 
the so-called Expedition One - feel truly at home. They'll be confined to two 
of the space station's three rooms until space shuttle Endeavor arrives in 
early December with giant solar panels that will provide all the necessary 
power.

It will be a learning experience for everyone involved, said Jeff Hanley, a 
flight director in the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's 
Mission Control in Houston.

''It's essentially a shakedown of the station for living and working in the 
future,'' Hanley said. ''We're really treating Expedition One as a 
verification test flight if you will.''

But Culbertson, who headed the sometimes troubled program that was launched 
in 1995 to link U.S. shuttles with Russia's Mir space station, was more 
expansive.

He said that the crew's entry into the space station would be ''the beginning 
of an adventure that will go on for a long, long time, with difficulties, 
with challenges. But it's the beginning of a new journey.''

NASA, the Russian Space Agency and the 14 other countries involved in the $60 
billion-plus project have high hopes for the space station. At least 15 years 
of scientific operation are planned, with crews eventually expanding from 
three to seven.

For now, though, Shepherd and company are taking it day by day.

After training nearly five years for this mission in two countries and 
enduring two years of delay because of Russia's ailing economy, Shepherd is 
ready to enjoy himself in orbit, said his wife, Beth Stringham-Shepherd.

''This will definitely be the fun part,'' she said.
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