Updated 1 November 2020 at 19:42 IST
ISS' first full-time crew members recalls experience of a Halloween launch 20 years ago
It's been 20 years since the first full-time inhabitants occupied the International Space Station. Recently, they spoke with NASA about their historic mission.
It's been 20 years since the first full-time inhabitants occupied the International Space Station (ISS) and also two decades of continuous habitation of Space by humans. On October 31, the Expedition 1 crew members William Shepherd, Sergei Krikalev, and Yuri Gidzenko boarded the Soyuz spacecraft and took off for the ISS, becoming its first full-time inhabitants. The three men arrived on the ISS on November 2 and the first thing they did after reaching was to look for a connector that would allow them to turn on lights and also to establish the communication system in order to send and receive messages from Earth.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the historic launch, the three astronauts, one American and two Russians, spoke to the Space Foundation board member Jeanne Meserve. The Expedition 1 crewmembers discussed what it was like to be the first-ever crewed expedition to the International Space Station. George Abbey, who was director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center at the time, and Ginger Kerrick, the Russian Training Integration Instructor for Expedition 1 also joined in the conversation.
George Abbey of NASA said that partnering with Russia was extremely vital in the success of the International Space Station because of their prior experience of running a space station. Abbey said that the first success came when they were able to get the first element up in the space one and a half years before the Expedition 1 crew members were launched. Abbey further added that the three men were picked because of their experience and their background as they needed the first crew to be an experienced one.
Yuri Gidzenko said that they did have some difficulties while preparing for the expedition but none while interacting as friends. William Shepherd said that there was a bit of language barrier but at the end of it they were able to communicate and understand each other very well. Ginger Kerrick said that the three men had started thinking like a single brain as she narrated a story when Shepherd came and asked the hardware engineers a couple of questions and later Yuri also asked the same three to four questions. "We were just like, oh my god, they're sharing a brain now," Kerrick said.
Tasks & challenges
Apart from conducting some scientific tests, the main task of the Expedition 1 crew members was to prepare the International Space Station for Expedition 2 and 3 crew members. There were many problems faced by the Expedition 1 crew members including a lack of coordination between control centres at Houston and Moscow. As Shepherd describes, one day he got frustrated upon receiving conflicting orders from the respective control centres in the US and Russia and he picked up the microphone and said, "Look, we’re the International Space Station, you guys have to coordinate one plan and give it to us."
The Expedition 1 crew members also faced another challenge when their first cargo arrived as it had started wobbling when it was 100 metres away from the ISS. The crew members then took the control of the cargo ship and socked it successfully to the ISS.
Published By : Vishal Tiwari
Published On: 1 November 2020 at 19:42 IST