First Full Station Crew Calls Outpost "Surreal"

The International Space Station is plenty big for six people, and life aboard the orbiting outpost is almost dreamlike at times, crewmembers said today.

"Believe me, this is a surreal world here. I sometimes feel like I'm in the middle of a Salvador Dali painting here," Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk said in a space-to-ground news conference.

"My greatest fear? You know, astronauts always have fear of injury or death, but our greatest fear is of making a mistake. So I just hope I can get through this six months without making any serious mistakes."

Thirsk arrived at the station last Friday with Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency, forming the second half of the station's first six-person crew.

The three joined Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt and Koichi Wakata of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, marking the first time representatives of all major project partners have been onboard.

The $100 billion station is a joint project of the U.S., Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan. The first two building blocks were linked in low Earth orbit in late 1998 and the first expedition crew boarded the outpost in November 2000.

The long-awaited doubling of resident crews is expected to triple the amount of time that can be devoted to scientific research on the station. Organizing all the work is a job itself.

"It's a little like herding cats for Gennady, trying to get us all organized and getting us to all to accomplish our tasks in a day," Thirsk said. "The learning curve is steep. We've been here five days now and I think we've learned an awful lot, so the working efficiency is coming."

A married father of five, Barratt said he is used to a crowd.

"Well, for me personally, I feel very much at home. I come from a large family and I'm used to a lot of activity and busyness and a lot of laughter, and we certainly have that now with these guys coming," Barratt said.

Shuttle Endeavour and seven more astronauts are scheduled to launch June 13 on a mission to deliver the third and final segment of the Japanese Kibo science research facility -- the largest lab at the outpost.

The arrival of the Endeavour crew will mark the first time 13 people have been at the station simultaneously.

"Up here, the station is very large, and six people still don't quite fill it. It's a very comfortable venue for six people," Barratt said.

"With 13 people up here, it'll be a challenge. Of course, we'll have the added volume of the shuttle added to the stack and it will be a massive stack. But it will be busy and there will be a lot of coordination, a lot of activity and a lot of patience but these are the guys to do that."

The Endeavour crew is headed by mission commander Mark "Roman" Polansky and includes pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Dave Wolf, Chris Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Julie Payette of the Canadian Space Agency.

Payette and Thirsk will be the first two Canadians to be in space simultaneously.

As it stands, Endeavour is due to dock at the station on June 15 and depart on June 26. The 16-day flight will be the longest shuttle mission to the station. The outpost will be 85 percent complete when the astronauts head for a June 29 landing at Kennedy Space Center.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge and save the NASA TV screen grab of the Expedition 20 crew. It includes (front row, left to right) Koichi Wakata of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt; and (second row, left to right) Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency.