WASHINGTON -- A Russian space capsule now docked at the international space station will be used to bring the space station crew back to Earth now that the U.S. shuttle fleet is grounded, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Thursday.
O'Keefe told a congressional committee that the 16 countries participating in the space station had agreed to use the docked Soyuz capsule to ferry the crew home. Two new residents, one American and one Russian will go up on a fresh Soyuz that will remain attached to the station for the next six months.
With space shuttle flights on hold because of the Columbia disaster, the Russian craft is "the sole means of support for the space station until the shuttle fleet returns to service," said Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Texas, who introduced legislation to allow NASA to help Russia purchase additional spacecraft if President Bush notifies Congress that the vehicles are needed to ensure the safety of the space station crew.
O'Keefe told the House Science Committee that the next long-term crew was in training at the cosmonaut headquarters in Star City, Russia, to be proficient in Soyuz systems. A NASA spokesman said the space agency was not yet ready to identify the two crewmen.
Another Soyuz will be launched in October with the follow-on station crew, O'Keefe said. He added that the station partners have agreed to accelerate the flights of unmanned cargo ships, called Progress. An additional Progress will be launched this year and an extra one next year, he said.
Only one American has ever returned to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft: the world's first paying space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito.
The Feb. 1 Columbia space shuttle accident, which killed the seven astronauts, forced NASA to ground the entire shuttle fleet. The shuttle is used to ferry astronauts from Earth to the space station, and a crew change-out flight had been scheduled for March. That flight is indefinitely suspended until the Columbia accident investigation is completed.
The NASA astronauts returning in late April or early May will be Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit, O'Keefe said. Their Russian crewmate, Nikolai Budarin, a former resident of his country's Mir station, has landed in a Soyuz before.
Lampson's bill would exempt NASA from the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000, which forbids payments to Russia. The proposed legislation would allow NASA to make such payments to cover the cost of additional spacecraft.
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