Army astronaut aboard ISS for six-month stay

ARNEWS ^ | J.D. Leipold

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 4, 2006) – Col. Jeffrey N. Williams launched Wednesday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a two-day flight to the International Space Station some 230 miles from earth.

Flight engineer for Expedition 13, Williams is joined by Pavel Vinogradov of Russia and Marcos Pontes of Brazil.

The crew will conduct a variety of scientific experiments, to include studying the effects of long-term weightlessness.

“It is important that we dedicate time and effort to understanding the impacts of a weightless environment on the human body because the space station’s primary purpose, of course, is … to send crews back to the moon for a long duration and, of course, on to Mars,” Williams said in a preflight interview with NASA.

While Williams and Vinogradov will be aboard the station for six months, Pontes will spend eight days conducting research before returning with the Expedition 12 crew.

Later, space shuttle Discovery will bring astronaut Thomas Reiter of Germany to the outpost, which will restore the station’s crew to three members for the first time since the Columbia accident in February 2003.

As Discovery approaches for docking, Williams will take photographs of the shuttle doing a 360 degree somersault.

“Part of the aftermath of the Columbia accident was the realization that we need to understand that if damage occurs to the shuttle during ascent, it might endanger the vehicle during the subsequent part of the mission, and in particular, entry,” Williams said.

“We don’t have sensors or cameras on the ground during the ascent that can detect all of the potential things that may happen, particularly to the underside of the orbiter,” he added.

Williams – who conducted a seven-hour space walk during a ten-day mission onboard Atlantis in May 2000 – will also conduct spacewalks to replace and install station components during his current stay.

The ISS is only half built, and has been under continuous construction since 1998.

“It’s a privilege and honor to be a part of it. The steps are sometimes slower than we would like, but every step, I believe, and hope, is important,” the astronaut said.

A West Point graduate, Williams began his Army career in the infantry but soon afterward attended flight school. He was selected for the astronaut program in 1996.

The Army has scheduled a video teleconference between Col. Williams and Gen. Peter Schoomaker for 2:15 p.m. (EST) on Thursday, April 6.

To view Williams' space launch, go to: http://www4.army.mil/amp/index2.php?video_items_id_key=780

(Editor’s note: Information gathered from NASA press releases.)

[SandRat]

Col. Jeffrey N. Williams waves at media representatives during a tour of the Soyuz assembly building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.NASA Photo

[SandRat]

Now we'll hear from the left that we are militarizing space. < / sarc

[KevinDavis]

[Calpernia]

ping

[SunkenCiv]

Williams – who conducted a seven-hour space walk during a ten-day mission onboard Atlantis in May 2000 – will also conduct spacewalks to replace and install station components during his current stay.

Ah, so he's been in space before. This is a story because? Oh wait -- because the US Army is now relying on the Soviets, er, I mean, the Russians, to launch its astronauts.

The ISS is only half built, and has been under continuous construction since 1998.

And once it hits 15, it'll be time to dump the whole works into the Pacific. Which means, it's 8 years old, half finished, with 7 years to go, and there won't be capability to finish it before it is ditched. So, time has arrived to call it what it is -- a special olympics for phony international cooperation, and miserable failure.

[af_vet_rr]

And once it hits 15, it'll be time to dump the whole works into the Pacific. Which means, it's 8 years old, half finished, with 7 years to go, and there won't be capability to finish it before it is ditched. So, time has arrived to call it what it is -- a special olympics for phony international cooperation, and miserable failure.

There is a theory that the ISS is international, so that NASA couldn't simply "dump the whole works into the Pacific". In other words, by making it international, NASA/Congress, etc. can't simply dump it, they have to keep maintaining it, which is great if you are wanting to keep your budget high or to keep a certain space vehicle/project going that should have been replaced 10 years ago.

[SunkenCiv]

The station will be dumped as obsolescent after 15 years or so, and everyone involved accepts that. But they thought there would be something like 10 years of useful life in the completed station when they agreed.