And it's possible space officials might decide that the longer, old-fashioned way -- allowing the crew to get its space legs over two days, however cramped they might be -- is preferable, depending on how this mission goes, Humphries said.
After a two-day journey aboard the Soyuz capsule, the crew will dock with the space station, overlapping briefly with the current crew - station commander Mike Fossum of Nasa, Japan's Satoshi Furukawa and Russia's Sergei Volkov - who will then return to earth.
And if the crew assigned to man the deep-space mission travels up separately to the station, it would also mean all the elements for their long-duration flight could be launched without the complications of ultra-safe abort systems that complicate manned rockets.
The space station crew has been limited to two full-time residents since last year's suspension of space shuttle flights in the wake of the Columbia accident.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Astronauts may get time extension
Still, the space station's crew -- which also includes three Russian cosmonauts -- were never in danger because of it, NASA said.
Suffredini said Monday that space station crew is well-supplied due to the delivery of goods by the final U.S. shuttle mission carried out by Atlantis last month.
Two of the four gyroscopes - part of the space station's pointing and navigating system - were initially shut down but the crew installed a jumper cable to bring up a third gyroscope, leaving the station in a much more stable position, AP says.
That set the stage for the spacewalk involving three of the space station's six-man crew.
The crew has been aboard the International Space Station since mid-December.
Space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 crew carried it into orbit in May 2011, where it was installed on the station's truss structure.
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If there can't be a new manned mission from Earth by then, administrators will have to decide whether to take extensive steps to extend the vehicle's certification for the return flight, proceed on a return flight without certification, or de-man the space station by flying back the remaining crew members within the certification period, he said.
Among the crew of Shenzhou-9 was Liu Yang, the first Chinese woman in space.
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Air Wales had hit the headlines last year by appealing for cabin crew under 5ft 3 inches - a height restriction it insists on because of tight space on the aircraft.
While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop these capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration.
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However, the NASA official, Mike Suffredini, said no decisions can be made until a commission appointed by Russia completes its investigation of the August 24 crash involving a Soyuz rocket -- the same kind used to power the flights of crew members to the space station.
The crew of the space station is expected to rise from three to six in mid-2009.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Endeavour launched from Florida
This pioneering, fast-track crew was made up Pavel Vinogradov and Aleksandr Misurkin from Russia's space agency, as well as NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.
On December 5, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romaneko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn will launch from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station, which will give the station a 6-person crew until March, when Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will leave.
It's an attempt to bring some sunlit consistency to space exploration, simulating Earth-like lighting patterns to help keep the crew alert and get them ready for sleep in the evenings.
As question after question was directed at the Ohio Democrat, his fellow crew members -- some of whom weren't even born when Glenn first went into space -- watched silently.
Those of you who have seen the film Apollo 13 know the story - but on the site is a transcript of the mission where you can read the conversations between a crew in a crippled space craft and the guys on earth trying to get them home - it's absolutely fascinating.
The first Dutchman in space has been rescued from his stricken eco-friendly yacht by Newhaven lifeboat crew.
The two space station crews, along with the four Discovery astronauts, continued unloading supplies from the Italian-built Leonardo cargo module, a shiny giant cylinder that the shuttle crew attached to the space station on Monday.
The two space station crews, along with the four Discovery astronauts, have finished unloading supplies from the Italian-built Leonardo cargo module, a shiny giant cylinder that the shuttle crew attached to the space station on Monday.
The Russian vehicle essentially took a shortcut that required precisely timed steering over the course of four orbits, putting three crew members (including one American astronaut) on the space station at 10:28pm ET -- just five hours and 45 minutes after takeoff from Kazakhstan.
Endeavour and its crew of six Americans and a Canadian launched successfully from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday - after five failed attempts.
The Space Launch System, or SLS, will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond.
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