Backup astronaut finally gets chance on space station
By MARK CARREAUCopyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
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RESOURCES |
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In early February, the 37-year-old Air Force officer was told he would be launching in less than a dozen weeks on his first spaceflight, a six-month tour of duty aboard the international space station.
There was a drawback, though. Fincke would be leaving behind a pregnant wife, Renita, and the couple's nearly 3-year-old son.
Tonight, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, the mission commander; Fincke, the flight engineer and science officer; and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency, is scheduled to lift off for the orbital outpost.
"I'm really lucky to be here," Fincke said during a pre-mission training session in Houston. "I know my wife is in good hands, although she said I owe her big time."
Once they reach the 240-mile-high space station, Padalka and Fincke will replace American Mike Foale and Russian Alexander Kaleri.
Foale and Kaleri are due to return to Earth on April 29, ending a 195-day voyage. Kuipers will fly back with them after conducting a fast-paced round of experiments aboard the orbital laboratory.
Fincke, who traces his fascination with space travel back to the Apollo moon and Skylab space station missions he followed as a child, is undaunted by the demanding mission and the unusual circumstances that accelerated plans originally calling for him to launch in the fall.
"When the call came, it was like, `Wow. I'm going up to the big leagues now, The Show,' " Fincke said.
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MICHAEL FINCKE PROFILE |
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�A native of Pittsburgh. �Graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with degrees in aeronautics and Earth and planetary science. �Earned master's degrees from Stanford University in aeronautics and in planetary geology from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. �Learned Russian while participating in a student exchange program for the study of cosmonautics in Moscow. �As an Air Force officer, became a flight test engineer. Became fluent in Japanese while stationed at a test center in Japan.
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GENNADY PADALKA PROFILE |
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�A native of Pittsburgh. �Graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with degrees in aeronautics and Earth and planetary science. �Earned master's degrees from Stanford University in aeronautics and in planetary geology from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. �Learned Russian while participating in a student exchange program for the study of cosmonautics in Moscow. �As an Air Force officer, became a flight test engineer. Became fluent in Japanese while stationed at a test center in Japan.
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In January, the veteran U.S. astronaut originally assigned to the mission was sidelined by a temporary medical problem. NASA named a replacement. But the lineup changed again when the Russians suggested it would be better to substitute a completely new two-person crew with a lengthy and favorable training record.
Padalka, who converses easily in English, and Fincke, who speaks fluent Russian, had been training for more than three years backing up other crews.
The American will leave the care of his expectant wife and son to his in-laws. All have traveled to Russia, where they plan to follow tonight's launch from the mission control facility in suburban Moscow.
Fincke acknowledged the opportunity to fly at the cost of leaving his young family behind was made even tougher by last year's fatal breakup of the shuttle Columbia.
"It made us all re-evaluate ourselves and our motivations, but on the other hand there is a love of space in my heart," he said. "I've talked it over with my family, and we accept the risks. There is an element of faith there, but I know we are in good hands."
After nearly eight years in NASA's astronaut corps, Fincke was watching the number of flight opportunities slip away.
The Columbia tragedy will ground the shuttle for at least two years, leaving only Russia's three-person Soyuz capsules for transportation to the space station.
With the shuttle supply line to the station inactive, the U.S. and Russian space agencies were forced to cut the number of full-time tenants aboard the outpost from three to two to lower the demand for water, air and other life-support requirements.
The space station is two weeks from marking the first anniversary of its two-person occupancy, and Fincke and Padalka expect their flexibility to be tested as they strive to maintain the outpost's equilibrium.
"Our primary goal is to keep the station in operating condition until the space shuttle resumes flight again and maintain a human presence," said Padalka, who led a 198-day mission to Russia's former Mir space station a half-dozen years ago.
The station's Elektron, a Russian device that converts water to oxygen, recently was repaired after several weeks of uneven operation. Foale and Kaleri relied on breathing air compressed in storage tanks and the combustion of oxygen-generating candles during the period.
Much-needed spare parts for the Elektron have been stowed aboard the Soyuz, and more components should arrive next month aboard an unmanned Russian Progress cargo capsule.
One of four electrically driven American gyroscopes that steer and steady the station as it circles the Earth faltered in mid-2002. Recently, a second gyro has shown worrisome signs of internal friction.
Additional losses could force mission managers to switch to thruster control, an alternative that would require Russia to step up its launchings of fuel-laden Progress cargo craft.
Even the treadmill and other internal exercise equipment that is vital to the physical well-being of the astronauts has required unanticipated repairs by Foale and Kaleri.
Faced with those challenges, Fincke and Padalka expect to tackle 20 major U.S. science experiments and 55 Russian investigations and conduct a pair of spacewalks.
During the summer outings, the two men plan to install communications gear that will permit a large new European cargo spacecraft to begin delivering supplies to the space station beginning in mid-2005.
It is a busy schedule, one that Fincke embraces with the heart of a star-struck boy.
"I'm that same little 3-year-old that wanted to fly to the moon with all the Apollo guys, and here I am," Fincke said. "What a neat adventure."
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