A place in space

Boeing celebrates five years of continuous human presence on ISS

BY ED MEMI

Imagine living in one of the most inhospitable environments in the world for the past five years while also constructing your home, having a full-time job and conducting science experiments. Then you can fully appreciate the accomplishment of NASA and its Boeing industry team in keeping the International Space Station running smoothly with a continuous human presence since Nov. 2, 2000.

ISS crews have maintained the program's goals and objectives even in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in February 2003. That event curtailed assembly and limited ISS logistics resupply to Russian Progress cargo shipments until the Shuttle returned to flight in July. The next Space Shuttle logistics mission will occur no earlier than May 2006.

Boeing is the prime contractor for the ISS. And with most of the station hardware now built, the company has shifted its focus to resuming assembly missions while sustaining and operating the station. Boeing and its suppliers have worked equally hard to keep station hardware at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., in good shape while in storage for this extended period.

"The focus of the first 2 1/2 years was on continued assembly of the station; the last 2 1/2, it has been a challenge to keep the station crewed and the consumables supplied," said John Elbon, Boeing vice president and program manager of the ISS program.

Under the U.S. government's Vision for Space Exploration, NASA will complete the ISS and use it as a test bed for long missions in space, work that will enable the United States to send humans to the moon, Mars and beyond. The ability to be flexible and to work with the international partners has been crucial to the station's success, Elbon said. It also has taught Boeing and NASA key lessons that can be applied to exploration, like the importance of planning ahead for logistics and consumables such as water, oxygen and food.

"The philosophy on station was that when a box [a replaceable system] fails, we bring it back to Earth, repair it and take up a new one. Without the shuttle, we have not been able to do that. So performing maintenance onboard the station has been important and will remain so for future exploration," he said.

HARDWARE PERFORMING WELL

The hardware on orbit has been performing well for the astronauts over the past five years: The average time between equipment breakdowns on station is 50 percent better than predicted. "We have been able to operate with a crew of two instead of three. It is incredible that we've had crews up there for five years and not had any significant problems," Elbon said.

Looking toward the NASA milestone of 2010 after which the shuttle will be retired, Elbon said the team is "anxious to get started with future assembly flights." NASA is expected to release an assembly sequence that relies on 18 more shuttle flights to complete assembly of the ISS.  NASA is currently holding high-level discussions of the proposed assembly sequence with its international partners.

The ISS is the only vehicle ever built on-orbit that was not integrated on the ground as one unit before it was launched. "Imagine building a 787 and putting it together in space for the first time where all the pieces have never been together before," Elbon said.

The station increases its crew size to three with the next shuttle mission and eventually will increase to six crew members. One of the requirements of NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle when it begins flying in 2012 will be to service the station. The CEV will be initially capable of flying three astronauts plus cargo and remaining docked to the station for extended periods.

"When completed, the ISS will start to do the research it was intended to do," Elbon said. "My big hope is that we make some great breakthroughs in research someday. We are going to learn a lot about what it is going to take to go back to the moon and on to Mars. We are going to continue to learn how to work well with our international partners. We are also developing the skills in our work force that we need to make the Vision for Space Exploration a reality." 

edmund.g.memi@boeing.com