First Alpha crew gives space station high marks

Bill Shepherd

In this story: Readjusting to the home world Lessons learned Reflecting on working together RELATED STORIES, SITES

(CNN) -- You can't see your family. Your bones and muscles wilt away. You can't even take a decent bath.

But the first long-term residents of the new international space station Alpha still give life on the station rave reviews.

U.S. astronaut Bill Shepherd, the first commander of Alpha, and his two Russian crewmates, Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, answered questions Wednesday from CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien and from CNN.com readers who submitted questions by e-mail.

VIDEO CNN's Miles O'Brien talks with the first crew of space station Alpha Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MESSAGE BOARD Human spaceflight

Shepherd said his training at Star City in Russia and at Johnson Space Center in Texas made it easy to adjust to life in space.

"Survival training is one of the biggest ways that we did that," Shepherd said. "I think four years of that before we flew made us really ready for life on station and we adapted well."

Despite being away from his wife and daughter for 4 1/2 months, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who served as a flight engineer on Alpha, said he never felt isolated.

"I don't think it was really isolation because we were talking to the ground almost each orbit," Krikalev said. "We were pretty busy, so I actually didn't feel myself isolated. And of course we had a pretty nice view of Earth."

Readjusting to the home world

Shepherd, Krikalev and Gidzenko exercised vigorously aboard Alpha to minimize damage from living in low gravity.

"We really had to load ourselves down on the treadmill," Shepherd said. "Running on it was not a lot of fun but I think we're all glad that we did it now that we're back on the Earth."

Sergei Krikalev, left, Bill Shepherd, center, and Yuri Gidzenko

All three surprised flight surgeons by walking off the space shuttle Discovery, which brought them back to Earth March 21.

"We're doing very well, actually," said Shepherd, whose wife Beth is his rehabilitation therapist. "Our pre-flight and in-flight experience -- getting good exercise has really helped."

Shepherd even had an appetite, celebrating his homecoming with a beer and a cheeseburger. Many astronauts get queasy at the sight of food after even short space flights.

Discovery also took up a replacement crew to Alpha: Russian Commander Yury Usachev and U.S. astronauts Susan Helms and Jim Voss.

Lessons learned

Shepherd said the most important lesson he learned living on an international space station is that you have to respect other cultures.

"I think the biggest issue for NASA and for the Russian Space Agency and other folks... (is) everybody has to accept some cultural change to make this happen," Shepherd said. "It's probably the biggest problem in front of us and it's probably one of the hardest things we have got to go work on."

Shepherd also hopes mission managers lighten up a bit on the new space station crew. He said he really didn't get to have much downtime in space.

"We did enjoy working hard and getting the station ready. But I think looking back on it we would have liked to have had a little more time to relax."

When the crew did get time to relax and freshen up, the facilities were not exactly spacious. There's no locker room on Alpha. Crewmembers basically have to settle for the orbital equivalent of a spit bath.

"We had wet towels and dry towels," said Gidzenko. "Maybe only 50-60 grams (about 2 ounces) of water. It was enough to make our bodies clean."

But Gidzenko and Shepherd said toweling off was sufficient.

"I did miss having a shower, particularly to clean my hair up," said Shepherd. "But otherwise what we did onboard was certainly very workable."

Besides dirty hair, Shepherd -- a former Navy SEAL who has spent time on ships and submarines -- said he found it easy to get used to living on Alpha and that it seemed "very normal" after a while.

"I think the most surprising thing about space was how readily humans can adapt to it," Shepherd said.

Reflecting on working together

Shepherd said another valuable lesson he learned on Alpha is that life on the space station provides a mirror for reflecting on the many different ways to solve problems.

"This mirror allows us to look at how we do things...and we get to compare this with how other countries approach the same problem and this is hugely valuable," said Shepherd. "This will be one of the legacies of space station."

"We are learning how to work together," added Krikalev. "We are learning what is different and we are trying to take the best part of each program to bring everything together."

CNN's Miles O'Brien contributed to this report.

Discovery brings home first Alpha crew
March 21, 2001

NASA

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.