From Yahoo news:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=Science&cat=International_Space_StationSpace Station Could Hold More Crew Members
Sat Jul 24, 4:08 AM ET
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The international space station could be expanded beyond its current three crew-member capacity by the end of the decade under an agreement reached Friday by the station's 16 partners.
The space station would house a permanent crew of as many as six members as early as January 2009 under a deal reached at a meeting in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, by the heads of the space agencies involved in the station.
The size of the crew depends on the number of Soyuz escape vehicles that can be docked at the space station.
"It's going to have to be some derivative of what a Russian Soyuz vehicle can handle," said Allard Beutel, a NASA (news - web sites) spokesman in Washington. Each Soyuz can fit three people.
Many details still need to be worked out in the next several years, including a construction schedule and the logistics of bringing more food, water and supplies for a larger crew. Also unknown are how the space station's systems would handle the extra bodies and where extra supplies could be stored, Beutel said.
"You want to make sure the systems are performing well to handle an extra number of people before you put the people up there," he said.
A crucial step toward the goal of increasing the crew size is the return to flight of NASA's space shuttle fleet needed to carry parts up to the station to finish its construction. NASA plans the next shuttle flight to be next spring. But once the space station construction is complete in 2010, President Bush (news - web sites) has called for the shuttles to be retired.
The shuttles have been grounded since last year after the shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, killing its seven astronauts. The space station has had two-man crews since then to conserve resources.
The agreement among the international partners likely will get final approval at a meeting next year.
Well, we are getting a lot of indications for a timeline on what our space program will look like for the next 20 years or so in this article. If they are going to can the shuttle in 5 years, then they will have to start on a replacement soon. Also, I'm personally looking for us to start making another Gemini-like ship for personel replacement.
Topic: Space Station to enlarge crew by 2009 (Read 1063 times)