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Canadian Astronaut's Trip to Space Station Will Require Lots of Exercise

Posted on: Monday, 11 February 2008, 18:00 CST

Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk will have to do a lot of exercise when he settles in for an extended stay on board the International Space Station next year.

Thirsk and Julie Payette will be the next Canadians to visit the space station and they will be making their voyages next spring within weeks of each other. The 54-year-old Thirsk hopes to set a record for the length of time a Canadian has remained on the space station.

He will start his voyage, which is scheduled to last between four and six months, when he blasts off aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule on May 25, 2009.

"My job as a long duration crew member will be. . more focused on maintenance or repair work and of course on research as well," Thirsk told a news conference Monday.

"I'm gonna need to exercise each day for two and a half hours in order to ward off the effects of weightlessness on my heart, on my muscles and on my bones."

His visit will come about a month after Payette's 15-day tour of duty which begins when she blasts off in April 2009 aboard space shuttle Endeavour.

It will be the 44-year-old Payette's second trip in space - she was aboard Discovery in 1999.

During her mission, Payette and the space station crew will help install the remaining components of the Kibo laboratory of JAXA, the Japanese space agency.

"It's a very challenging mission with five planned space walks and an extraordinary amount of robotics operations," Payette told reporters. She is not scheduled to perform any space walks.

"This is so important because without those pieces that are missing (from) the construction of the International Space Station we can't fully exploit it....as a research laboratory."

Thirsk will also become the first Canadian to hitch a ride to the space station on the Soyuz, which he indicated was more reliable than the "multi-functional" and "versatile" American space shuttles.

"Sometimes it (the shuttle) can't launch on every single day that we would like it to launch because of small problems or the weather," he said.

"On the other hand, the Soyuz vehicle is designed only to be a rocket and a crew transport vehicle.

"If I'm scheduled to launch on May 25 2009, I have a pretty good assurance that I will be launching on that day."

All previous space station visits by Canadians were made aboard an American space shuttle.

Thirsk last took part in a space mission in 1996 when he served as a payload specialist during a 17-day flight on board the space shuttle Columbia.

Columbia disintegrated in the Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Canadarm2, the robotic manipulator arm on the space station, will play an important role during both missions.

But the builders of Canadarm1 and Canadarm 2 have put their company up for sale.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice says the proposed sale of the space and satellite business of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. is still being reviewed.

MDA is being sold to U.S. defence contractor Alliant Techsystems.

"We are in the process of examining all of the implications and I can assure you I intend to be diligent in protecting the interests of Canadian taxpayers," he told reporters.

Prentice, who is also the minister responsible for the Canadian Space Agency, noted that over the past 20 years, eight Canadians "have worn the Maple Leaf into space on 13 flights."

"The success of the design and use of the original Canadarm in the space shuttle program led the United States in 1983 to invite Canada to send its own astronauts into space."

Source: Canadian Press

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