the explorers journal - The Explorers Club

of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, launching from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. During
Expedition 10, we performed two spacewalks,
which offered me a unique opportunity to put on
a Russian Orlan spacesuit and to compare their
system with ours.
i n t e r n a t i o n a l a p p r o a c h t o
s p a c e E x p l o r a t i o n
It was interesting for me to note that cultural differences
extend into technical arenas. I found
the Russian space hardware and methods to be
effective, safe, and reliable. However, their approach
is totally different from ours in the West.
We Americans tend to engineer our systems to optimize
performance. For example, even the power
tool that NASA developed includes a microprocessor.
The Russians, on the other hand, use simple,
often mechanical systems. The analogy I use is that
American hardware is like a luxury car: comfortable,
with many amenities, but also complicated.
Russian hardware is like that old pickup truck:
uncomfortable, free of amenities, but it starts and
will get you to point B every time.
When China launched its first astronaut, Yang
Liwei, into space in October 2003, it became
only the third nation in the world capable of human
spaceflight. Three years later, I became
the first American to be allowed to visit the
Astronaut Center of China (ACC), in Beijing.
Over a series of visits there, I met the ACC director,
Chen Shanguang, and astronauts Yang
Liwei, Fei Junlong, Nie Haisheng, and China’s
first spacewalker, Zhai Zhigang. I was impressed
with China’s space program, which has leveraged
Russian technology and added sophistication in
what appears to be a blend of the Russian and
American engineering philosophies. Having flown
only three crewed space missions, China lacks
operational experience, not technological ability.
M a g i c o f S p a c e f l i g h t
Spaceflight is a magical, almost surreal experience.
It is this basis that forms the special bond
between astronauts and cosmonauts of all countries.
What’s the best part Looking back at the
Earth and taking in the stunning beauty of our
planet and being able to observe the same places
on our planet throughout the seasons.
A long mission to the ISS is quite different from
a two-week shuttle flight. Perhaps a good analogy
is the comparison of a marathon to a sprint. Just
as the crew settles into a comfortable groove after
four to six weeks, so does the human body. The
fluid shift from the lower extremities, which give
people a “full-headed” feeling, subsides, as do
other more subtle changes.
There’s nothing quite like living and working in
microgravity. And as the largest space structure
ever built, the ISS is the premier microgravity
laboratory and thus presents an ideal environment
in which to explore a host of research possibilities,
including the development of future vaccines,
which would improve life both on and off of the
Earth and beyond (see page 31).
T h e S p a c e S h u t t l e P r o g r a m
m a r k s a m i l e s t o n e
Originally conceived as a low-cost, reusable orbital
“truck,” the Space Shuttle was intended to fly almost
weekly and offer inexpensive space access
to both government and commercial users. It has
been flying now for nearly three decades, but after
134 flights and two fatal accidents, it has never approached
the original goals on cost and turnaround.
It is expensive to operate (around $500 million
per mission) and carries more risk than originally
thought. NASA’s own estimates place the fatality
risk on the shuttle around one in one hundred.
Nevertheless, it has been a magnificent flying
machine. There has been no other vehicle like it.
It launches like a rocket and then becomes an
orbital platform capable of deploying satellites;
supporting scientific instruments, investigations,
and spacewalking astronauts; and performing
rendezvous and docking with space stations. It
then reenters the Earth’s atmosphere to land on a
runway like an airplane. Twenty-nine years of operations
have produced numerous achievements,
including the deployment and servicing of the
Hubble Space Telescope, the construction and
support of the ISS, the rescue of several satellites,
and the conducting of thousands of scientific experiments.
We have learned much from the shuttle
experience, both in space technology and engineering,
as well as in operations. These lessons
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