Iss Modifications Set The Stage For A Six-person Crew

摘要

Space Shuttle Endeavour's crew of seven began their journey home shortly after celebrating the American Thanksgiving holiday with the astronauts and cosmonaut who will remain on board the newly updated international space station (ISS).rnThe apparently successful fix of a solar array-rotating gear and a recycling system that turns urine into drinkable water have set the stage for the international space station to ramp up to six-astronaut crews next year, but only after a battery of tests confirm the repairs.rnEndeavour undocked from the space station Nov. 28 in preparation for a Nov. 30 re-entry and landing at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.rnNASA's international space station program manager Mike Suf-fredini said the in-space repairs by station and Endeavour shuttle astronauts to the urine recycler and a massive starboard-side gear have put the orbiting lab on course for next year's plan to double the size of its current three-person crews.