Space Station Could Be Lost

Hi,
watched the news Friday evening,Sept/24/04 on TV,
there was a report that the International Space-
Station was short of Food and Oxygen,before the
next scheduled supply launch from Russia,and that
the Space Staion might have to be abandoned.It
reminded me of an article I read last year in
The Washington Post on Friday/October/24/03,"NASA
Fears Space Station Could Be Lost".If NASA is forced
to abandon the Space Station temporarily because of
deteriorating health conditions for the crew on board,
there is a high risk of losing the $30 Billion orbital
laboratory,Nasa officials said Thursday.We've done
some analysis and it shows that we have a fairly high
probability that if we have the wrong components fail,
and there is not a crew on board to change it out,we
could have the station in a degrading manner said
Space Station Program Manager-William Gerstenmaier,
who is in Russia to monitor Monday's return of a
Russian Soyuz Capsule carrying two station crew
members who were replaced this week.A Space Station
Engineer said studies conducted following the
grounding of the Space Shuttle Fleet in February
showed there is a 50-50 chance of losing the orbiting
Space Lab if no crew is aboard.He said the decision
to send up a new crew on Saturday despite the concerns
of midlevel scientists and physicians was difficult,
but that senior officials concluded there was no
justification for flushing a multibillion dollar
investment down the toilet in the absence of a
documented threat to the crew.A Post report revealed
two managers responsible for health conditions on the
Space Station had objected to Saturday's launch and
warned deteriorating medical equipment and air and
water monitoring devices aboard the Orbiting
Laboratory pose increasing safety risks.
It'd sure be
a shame to lose the International Space Station after
all the effort and cooperation it took to build it.
Cordially,John Hadden(jfhadden@...