European Space Agency Pressing for Six-Person Station Crews

摘要

The five partners in the international space station are scheduled to meet July 23 and European authorities hope that meeting will result in a firm commitment that the station will be operated with six astronauts whose emergency exit is assured by two attached Russian Soyuz spacecraft. How the purchase of three-passenger Soyuz vehicles will be paid, by whom and starting when has yet to be firmly resolved. The meeting, to be hosted by the European Space Agency (ESA) at its Estec technology center in Noordwijk, Netherlands, will feature the heads of the U.S., Russian, European, Japanese and Canadian space agencies.