Space

American prepares to leave for space station

BAIKONUR, Kazakstan - As a child, Michael Fincke donned cardboard wings and made his siblings play Star Trek. Now the Pittsburgh native trades cardboard cutouts for a Soyuz spacecraft and a giant Russian rocket as he heads for the international space station with Russian and Dutch crewmates.

Controllers gave final approval Sunday for the blastoff this morning, the third manned mission to the station since the halt of the U.S. shuttle program after the Columbia disaster in February 2003.

"He always knew that he would fly," Fincke's father, Edward, said at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan. "I'm so happy. I want to cry."

Fincke, 37, was born in Pittsburgh and became the only one of his four brothers to follow their father's path and join the U.S. Air Force.

"He would clap his cardboard wings and always ask his brothers and two sisters to play Star Trek," said Edward Fincke, 61.

Fincke, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force and master of aeronautics, astronautics and physical sciences, has logged more than 800 flight hours in more than 30 types of aircraft.

As NASA's science officer and flight engineer, he and Russian Gennady Padalka will spend six months on the space station. The two were initially trained to fly on a U.S. shuttle.

Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers will return to Earth after nine days with the station's current crew, American Michael Foale and Russian Alexander Kaleri, who have been in orbit since October.

For Kuipers, flying to the international space station is also a dream come true. Kuipers is the Netherlands' second astronaut, and Dutch journalists at Baikonur call him "our hero." The first Dutchman flew into space in 1985.

"He has worked very hard to become an astronaut. It was his ultimate dream," said Kuipers's wife Helen Conijn.

His father, Bram Kuipers, 74, said he wasn't worried about whether his son could cope with the mission. But he was overwhelmed at how the Russians treated their guests, feeling they were spoiled with too much food and too much chaperoning: "They tell you where to go and when to eat." But, he added, "Kuiperses can take a lot."

Kuipers' mother Rie and his two daughters, Megan, 11, and Robin, 12, also came to Baikonur to watch the launch of the Russian Soyuz TMA-4 spacecraft.

Getting to the space station aboard the three-seater craft is now the only way since the suspension of U.S. space shuttle flights.

"Our Russian partners are picking up the ball," Fincke said. "It's very symbolic what we can do when people all over the world work together."

But the Russians want more recognition from NASA for their efforts to keep the space station manned at the expense of its own space programs.

"Russia is taking off its last pair of pants, while the United States and Japan are cutting down their (space) budgets," said Sergei Gorbunov, the chief spokesman for Russia's space agency. "This cannot last long."

Russia had to freeze the construction of its own station segment and some commercial projects to keep the station afloat while the U.S. shuttle fleet remains grounded.

Space officials now want NASA to agree to prolong crew stints on the space station from the current six months to one year - a move that would allow Russia to make money selling rides to handsomely paying space tourists.

NASA spokesman Rob Navias said in Baikonur that shuttle flights might be resumed "by this time next year."

But the two space powers also differ on the station's prospects.

Under the original agreements, the station was supposed to be manned by six crew members already this year.

However, NASA is aiming at a three-member crew even after resuming shuttle flights.

"There is no point having three men there," said Gorbunov, citing earlier agreements that three of the six crew members on the station are supposed to be Russians. "We may ask one day: What is an American doing up there?"

World and national headlines

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright