CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The crew of space station Alpha still had to remind people what to call their home Wednesday three months after moving in.
Commander Bill Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev named the complex "Alpha" when they boarded the craft Nov. 2, 2000. Formally, however, the outpost remains the International Space Station.
The Alpha name is sticking inside much of NASA, but some pockets of opposition remain.
The latest confusion showed up Wednesday morning, as the Alpha crew prepared to tape a message for a space-related convention in Houston.
"Are we going to be space station Alpha or are we going to be International Space Station," Shepherd asked Mission Control in Houston.
"Shep, (NASA Public Affairs) said International Space Station is the name to use," came the response.
"That's not the answer we were expecting, but we'll do it that way," Shepherd said.
"Shep, we've just had another meeting here and decided it's going to be Alpha. So go ahead and call yourselves Alpha," Mission Control said seconds later.
"OK, I think that's the right call," the outpost commander radioed before taping the message.
The name has long been an issue for the station project, which is said to range in cost between $60 billion and $95 billion, according to government agencies. President Ronald Reagan proposed the station name "Freedom" in 1984. That name was abandoned soon after the fall of the Soviet Union, replaced with "Alpha" while the plans were redesigned.
The Russians argue that Mir was the first true space station, and the new outpost should be called "Beta."
The only name all 16 nations agreed to was "International Space Station." The title was seen by many as sterile, clunky and bland.
Shepherd said before the crew's launch that a ship should have a name and it surprised few that he asked NASA Administrator Dan Goldin for permission to use the Alpha name the day the crew floated inside.
Besides, Shepherd argued, Alpha translates to, among other things, "gateway" in ancient Greek.
Since then, Shepherd said the name should stick for the whole spacecraft, not just his crew. Other astronauts and cosmonauts have backed him up.
In the meantime, Alpha's crew is preparing the station for the arrival of its next major piece late next week.
The work is repetitive, but Shepherd said Wednesday that the men have not tired of it.
Rooting through lockers and boxes for cables, missing wires and other equipment has accounted for most of the crew's chores lately.
There also has been plenty of impromptu repair work for the men, such as a balky air conditioner that develops pools of condensed water around its pipes.
In between, the crew exercises and watches movies.
"My biggest game is figuring out what movie Yuri is going to pick every night," Shepherd said. "He likes Arnold Schwarzenegger."
Shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to attach the 28-foot-long U.S. Destiny lab to the station this week, but the launch was delayed until Wednesday. That left the Alpha crew three more weeks to tidy up the station before the new section arrives.
Shepherd, who compares life on the station to living aboard a submarine, said the crew is driven to finish its mission and leave the outpost in good shape for the next residents.
"We have a long list of things we'd like to get done before we leave and I don't think there's too much in terms of boredom or things that we just get tired of doing up here," Shepherd said.
The Alpha members are to remain on the station until mid-March when shuttle Discovery is to carry their replacements up and bring the current crew back.
Retired astronaut Norm Thagard, the first American to live aboard Mir, said there are subtle day-to-day differences aboard a space station. But crews staying in space for four months at a time should expect some monotony.
"In that period of time, it's not so bad that you can't just live through it," he said.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2001 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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