Posted: Thu, Dec 5, 2002, 2:13 PM ET (1913 GMT)
NASA and the other partners in the International Space Station project are considering doubling the size of the station's crew in 2006, according to Japanese press reports. Kyodo News reported Thursday that the ISS will be able to host as many as six astronauts at a time starting in 2006. Russia will provide additional Soyuz spacecraft to serve as lifeboats for the crew on the station, but the report made no mention of the additional accommodations on the station required for the increased crew. The crew size would be increased to seven in 2010 when NASA provides the Orbital Space Plane, a reusable vehicle that would replace the Soyuz spacecraft as the station's lifeboat. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe told the Associated Press Thursday that the size of the station's crew could increase "as early as" 2006, but didn't specify a target size. O'Keefe and representatives of the other space agencies involved with the ISS are meeting in Tokyo this week in the latest of a series of meetings about the station.

Related Links:

•  Kyodo News article (via Japan Today)
•  AP article (via ABCNews.com)