2 Astronauts Rally Workers at Tech Firm

Two U.S. astronauts scheduled to go into orbit later this year as part of an international space station program landed in Ventura County on Wednesday.

Their mission: to rally workers at a Camarillo firm that will supply parts for the $30-billion space station program.

Standing in front of an American flag and dressed in blue NASA jumpsuits, astronauts Robert Cabana and James Newman entertained nearly 200 employees at G & H Technology with tales of their previous space shuttle flights and gravity-defying training regimens.

The pair said G & H Technology’s power connectors will contribute to the success of the space station.

“The connectors you make are critical to the space station program,” said Cabana, who will command the first U.S. space station mission in December. “When you reflect on what’s overhead, you can say you touched the pieces up there.”

The multinational program is set to launch in November, with a Russian crew scheduled to transport the first parts of the project. The station, which will take about five years to build in orbit, will provide a platform about 220 miles above the Earth for long-term scientific and medical experiments.

But in recent weeks, the project has run into trouble. With the Russian space program running out of money, U.S. government officials have said they want to avoid a delay and that NASA should be ready to proceed without Russia.

Meanwhile, NASA officials disclosed earlier this week that Seattle-based Boeing Co., one of the project’s principal contractors, has already spent $196 million more than planned on the station.

To publicize the space station program, Boeing has arranged a nationwide astronauts tour of the companies involved in the project. Last fall, Boeing representatives made a stop at another Ventura County firm, Parker Symetrics of Newbury Park, said George Spears, a consultant to Boeing.

“It’s a global project,” Spears said of the space station. “Too big for any one country . . . or any one company.”

The financial troubles with the space station program seemed distant Wednesday, as the two astronauts talked about how food floats in a zero gravity environment, and joked that one of their training areas is known as the “vomit comet.”

“It’s going to be phenomenal,” said Cabana of the space station.