John Stehr/Eyewitness News
International Space Station, Feb. 11 - Ken Bowersox arrived at the International Space Station in November. NASA extended his stay there for three months while it investigates the shuttle tragedy.
But Bowersox and his two fellow astronauts say they'll make their extra time productive. "We are enjoying our stay up here. We enjoy our environment on the space station and we're going to enjoy the next three months here, so the extra stay is not something we view as a negative, in fact it's a positive."
In his first press conference from the Space Station since the Shuttle accident, Bowersox also talked about the emotion of losing friends and colleagues aboard the Columbia. "We've been getting lots of information from down on the ground. One thing we have noticed is that up here our emotions seem to be more amplified, so when we read some information we'll feel a stronger response than we might have felt on the ground. But as time goes by that seems to subside and we go on with our everyday work."
But the day of the Columbia memorial service was not routine for the three people still in space, waiting for a shuttle trip back home. "We sat in on the memorial service that was held on the Johnson Space Center and at the conclusion of that service after the bells had rung on the ground and the P-38s had flown by, it was very quiet onboard and we rang our ship's bell seven times and at that point it was very, very quiet onboard the International Space Station."
Bowersox says he and the other two astronauts are prepared to remain in orbit as long as necessary, even up to a year.
NASA is considering having the men return to Earth in an escape capsule built by the Russian space program for emergencies at the International Space Station.
