14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, the soon-to-be commander of the International Space Station (ISS), RosCosmos cosmonaut Gennedy Padalka, said that the countries involved in the orbital program believed that each of their representatives in space should stick to their own nation's facilities and not use those belonging to other crew members. He expressed his disapproval of this status quo, and added that the astronauts were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.
Now, NASA astronaut Michel Barratt comes to emphasize his future commander's viewpoint, sharing that, while sleeping quarters remain private, everything else aboard the ISS is shared in common by all crew members, Space reports.
Padalka also stated before last Thursday's lift-off of the TMA-14 Soyuz mission to the international lab that morale aboard the facility was low, on account of the fact that the 16 nations that participated in the ISS project continued to “bicker” over unimportant issues, such as how astronauts should divide their food, and what exercise bicycles each of them should use.
The Russian, who will command the station for the second time in his career, stressed that these types of arguments should not influence the life of the astronauts, who were separated from their loved ones and lived in harsh conditions.
“Cosmonauts are above the ongoing squabble, no matter what officials decide. We are grown-up, well-educated and good-mannered people and can use our own brains to create [a] normal relationship. It's politicians and bureaucrats who can't reach agreement, not us, cosmonauts and astronauts,” Padalka was quoted as saying by the Associated Press, before the launch. “What is going on has an adverse effect on our work,” he told Novaya Gazeta, AP informed on Monday.
“I would say that with the exception of your small, personal space, it's pretty much a group effort. Other than that, the rest of this big space station is pretty much communal,” Barratt pinpoints. There are currently six people aboard the ISS, including the two astronauts from Expedition 18, NASA's Michael Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov.
In addition, the full Expedition 19 crew, made up of Padalka, Barratt, and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, is ready to take on the challenges ahead. Completing the six is US billionaire Charles Simony, who is visiting the ISS for the second time, having paid a hefty $35 million for the trip. Expedition 18 and Simony will return to Earth aboard a Soyuz craft on April 7th.