Space station stars in a tale of endurance

HOUSTON - The international space station has flown for years with only an unofficial name, "Alpha." Now rarely used, and based on an obscure rationale, that name might at last have a worthy replacement, replete with honor and expressing what the 100-ton orbital outpost has truly exhibited: "Endurance."

With the space shuttle’s return to flight delayed another two months, the space station’s orbital isolation from large-scale repair and resupply will drag on even longer. Between the last shuttle departure in early December 2002 and the earliest possible return in mid-July, more than two and a half years have elapsed. It's traveled almost 400 million miles (640 million kilometers) in that period, and it has defied the doubters every mile of the way.

Space engineers who operate the station knew that because of its complexity, some equipment would be breaking down and needing replacement or repair. The rate of breakdown and the flow of spare parts had been calculated years in advance, and despite the near-continuous stream of news items over the last two years about something else breaking on the space station, the equipment has actually hung in there more reliably than expected.

This is true even though last Thursday’s internal status report from NASA Headquarters reprised the theme of a trouble-plagued Russian oxygen generator called Elektron. It broke down for about the three dozenth time — but this time, there seem to be no remaining tricks to revive it.

The status report describes several hours' worth of repair work, during which Russian station commander Sergei Krikalev scavenged potentially usable components of the failed device. At last, the refurbished unit was turned on. It ran about three minutes, then automatically shut itself down when its sensors detected something unacceptable about the pressures inside the plumbing.

“Russian specialists are reviewing the shutdown signature before deciding on a forward plan,” the NASA report said.

Getting by without the shuttle
Just the week before, space station program manager William Gerstenmaier talked with journalists about the situation that the station faced due to the additional shuttle delay. “From an overall space station standpoint, we're still in very good shape,” he insisted.

New supply flights by robotic Russian craft have already been scheduled. “We've been planning for a Progress launch on the 17th of June — that's still in work,” he said. “We were planning that manifest two different ways, one if the shuttle launched and one if the shuttle didn't launch, so we have that second manifest option all ready to go.”

The non-shuttle option was driven by shortages in other supplies needed by the crew. Gerstenmaier said fresh water would be the "tightest" supply requirement this spring. “We'll put a little extra water on that Progress,” he said.

AN ENDURING NAME The best-known Endurance was a British sailing ship guided in 1914 by Sir Ernest Shackleton to Antarctic waters, where it was trapped in ice. Thus began a 20-month ordeal that some call "one of the greatest survival stories of all time." Further resources: • Antarctic Connection: The Endurance • PBS: "Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance" • Royal Navy: Today's HMS Endurance

Another Progress cargo craft is due to be launched to the station in August, Gerstenmaier noted. “We'll do a dual manifest planning for that Progress in August. We'll do one with or without the shuttle, and we'll be prepared to operate either way,” he said.

Gerstenmaier also laid out the scenario for getting by with the balky Elektron oxygen generator: “Even if the Elektron doesn't come back and generate any oxygen from now until the Progress, we're fine. We have enough oxygen stores on board station and enough oxygen stored in solid-fuel candles that we can operate without any concerns.”

When the next Progress supply drone comes up in June, he said, “it will carry about 110 kilograms [242 pounds] of oxygen on it, and again that will carry us through to the next Progress, again, without any functioning Elektrons. So again we're in a fairly stable configuration overall in terms of oxygen.”

These oxygen problems are not new, but they became more acute late last year and early this year.

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