Happy New Year! This very day we should celebrate 5 AS, the fifth year of our ascension into space uninterrupted. On that November 2 the three first residents of Expedition One climbed into their new home, by proxy representing humanity establishing their stellar beachhead. I suppose we're actually two days into the new year, since it takes two days for the Soyuz to catch up with the station after launch. (Like we need any better excuse to stretch a one day holiday into three!)
From its slender beginnings Alpha has grown to 200 tons surrounding a pressurized volume of 15000 cubic feet. Her solar array wingspan is 240 feet, length 146 feet, and she stands 90 feet high. That means about one half of one percent of the station's volume is habitable. Her growing pains have included common household nuisances such as strange knocks, leaky windows, bad thrusters, and faulty oxygen generators.
Everyone involved deserves the gratitude of everyone else, but particularly these good people:
EXPEDITION | LAUNCH-LAND | ALOFT TIME | PERSONNEL |
One | 0010.31-0103.18 | 140 Days 23:38:00 | ISS Commander William Shepherd, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev |
Two | 0103.08-0108.22 | 167 Days 06:41:00 | Commander Yury Usachev, Flight Engineers James Voss and Susan Helms |
Taxi 2 | 0104.28-0105.07 | 9 days 22:05:00 | Soyuz Commander Talgat Musabayev, Flight Engineer Yury Baturin and Spaceflight Participant Dennis Tito |
Three | 0108.10-0112.17 | 128 Days 20:45:00 | Commander Frank Culbertson, Flight Engineers Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin |
Taxi 3 | 0110.21-0110.30 | 9 days 18:58:00 | Soyuz Commander Victor Afanasyev, Flight Engineers Konstantin Kozeev and Claudie Haigneré |
Four | 0112.05-0206.19 | 195 days 19:39:00 | Commander Yuri Onufrienko, Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch |
Taxi 4 | 0204.25-0205.04 | 9 days 19:25:00 | Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori and Spaceflight Participant Mark Shuttleworth |
Five | 0206.05-0212.07 | 184 days 22:14 | Commander Valery Korzun, Flight Engineers (Science Officer?) Peggy Whitson and Sergei Treschev |
Taxi 5 | 0210.29-0211.09 | Soyuz Commander Sergei Zalyotin, Flight Engineers Frank De Winne (ESA) and Yuri Lonchakov | |
Six | 0211.23-0305.03 | 161 days 01:17 | Commander Kenneth Bowersox, Flight Engineers Don Pettit and Nikolai Budarin |
Seven | 0304.25-0310.27 | 184 days 21:47 | Commander Yuri Malenchenko, Flight Engineer Ed Lu |
Eight | 0310.18-0404.29 | 194 Days 18:35 | Commander Michael Foale, Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Pedro Duque (ESA) |
Nine | 0404.18-0410.23 | 187 Days 21:17 | Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineers Edward "Mike" Fincke and Andre Kuipers (ESA) |
Ten | 0410.13-0504.24 | 192 Days 19:02 | Commander Leroy Chiao, Flight Engineers Salizhan Shairpov and Yuri Shargin |
Eleven | 0504.14-0510.10 | 179 days, 23:00 | Commander Sergei Krikalev, Flight Engineer John Phillips |
Twelve | 0510.01-0511.02 12 | Commander Bill McArthur, Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev and Spaceflight Participant Gregory Olsen |