Atlantis Crew to Start Work on Space Station

They’re cable guys, movers, plumbers, electricians and mechanics all rolled into a single space station team.

Seven astronauts and cosmonauts are scheduled to lift off on a flight to the international space station today to install a toilet, set up a treadmill, lay cable and otherwise “turn this house into a home.”

Atlantis’ 11-day voyage will be the first shuttle flight in almost four months and the start of what the National Aeronautics and Space Administration hopes will be a rapid-fire series of missions to the space station.

“Very shortly, the station’s going to come to life,” program manager Tommy Holloway said. “By this time next year, our plans would have a fully functional space station with adequate power to run our laboratory and keep the home running.”

Shuttle commander Terrence Wilcutt and his crew will be the first to float into the space station’s new Russian-made control module, Zvezda. Its arrival 1 1/2 months ago nearly doubled the size of the station, now a crowded three rooms.

“I have a real sense of satisfaction being here, getting ready to turn this house into a home and getting it ready for the first crew to live there,” Wilcutt said.

Thousands of pounds of supplies must be unloaded from Atlantis and a Russian supply ship that already has docked with the space station.

Astronaut Daniel Burbank said he is looking forward to “where we actually get our hands dirty, break out the tools and install this stuff.”

Until Zvezda’s launch in July, more than two years late, space station construction was on hold. Despite the extra time, Zvezda failed to meet NASA safety standards for noise and micrometeoroid protection. Mufflers and shields eventually will be added; in the meantime, everyone inside, Atlantis’ crew included, will have earplugs.

Space shuttle Discovery must follow with the first piece of space station truss, or framework, before the first permanent residents can move in at the start of November.

Altogether, NASA plans eight shuttle flights to the space station over the next year, beginning with Atlantis’ mission.

The high point will be the launch of the U.S. lab Destiny in January. At that point, the international space station will be larger than Russia’s Mir. That is also when controllers in Houston will take over day-to-day space station operations from their counterparts in Moscow.

Russia is supposed to supply more cargo ships and more space station components, but because of the country’s financial crisis everything beyond this year is in question.

“It’s an ugly process, actually. It’s a very difficult, cumbersome and unpleasant process of dealing with the Ministry of Finance and forcefully getting this money from them,” said Mikhail Sinelshikov, chief of piloted programs for the Russian Space Agency.