Their 1-Year Mission 

Now, here's a pretty cool bit of news: NASA is apparently seriously considering a Rosaviakosmos proposal to extend the Expedition 10 increment on ISS to a full year. Expedition 9 will be launching to the Station on or around April 18, and will stay until October, when E10 will launch. Reports are that the proposal, on the part of RSA, is motivated at least to some degree by money--not having a crew exchange mission in April 2005 would mean that the Soyuz rotation mission that will be flown then could carry tourists instead of ISS crew members. The interesting thing about that, however, is that NASA had previously mentioned the possibility that STS-115 or STS-121 might be a crew rotation Shuttle flight, and would fly around the original end date for Exp. 10. Proposing leaving them up there for a year because a Soyuz would not be available presupposes that either the Shuttle will not be available by then, or will no longer be flying crew rotation missions, both of which have been rumored, but neither of which has been, to the best of my knowledge, stated officially. All that aside, I love the idea. With all of the controversy about the assignments of Exp. 9, 10, and 11, both agencies would have to make extremely sure the right crews are chosen, though, to be fair, by the time the NASA astronaut enters the extended portion of the mission, he would already have as much spaceflight time just from that one mission as almost any other NASA astronaut (I really wish they could simply extend the mission of the current crew, though that accomplishes nothing in terms of what RSA is wanting to do). Under the new Vision for Space Exploration, the primary purpose of NASA's involvement in ISS is to learn more about human adaptation in long-duration spaceflight in preparation for exploration of other worlds. Learning about what happens when you spend 6 months in space is just not going to cut it when your aim is to eventually send people on to Mars. Further, the Russians have already proved that you can stay for a year in space at a time. NASA is, sooner or later, going to have to follow suit. And, the sooner it happens, the sooner both agencies will be able to move even further ahead.

:: :: 08:46 :: David :: [permalink] ::