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29 months-in fact, I think they had a launch scheduled today-where they were going to launch a visiting crew that included a Syrian astronaut, cosmonaut. They intend to leave that crew up probably for another several months. We haven't had a crew in orbit for longer than a couple of weeks, since 1974. They've had several crews up in orbit for increasingly long periods of time, and there's-no one questions that they have the lead in number of crew hours in space. They're developing just what Mr. Perkins referred to earlier, as a comfort factor in space. They know how to get to space; they know how to live in space; and they've been doing it for many years. Mrs. Morella. Should we be concerned that they might reach the point where they don't look to us for help, assistance, in that area? Dr. Ride. I don't really think that they do look to us for assistance in most areas of their space program. In fact, I wouldn't put it that way at all. They're very eager to-and they've made it very clear-that they're very eager to cooperate with us on robotic Mars exploration. They've got three missions planned for 1988, 1992 and 1994, and they've announced an intent for a sample return mission in the late 1990's, and they would like very much to coordinate those first three missions with our Mars Observer mission, to exchange data and possibly coordinate experiments. So they're eager in certain areas to cooperate. I don't think that they beleive they need our assistance at all, though, in their general space program, particularly their launch vehicles or their space station. They've got, just as of a month or so ago, a very capable heavy lift launch vehicle, that we don't have anything that comes close to that right now and won't for several years. Mrs. Morella. Thank you. How are you going to stay involved with the space program? Dr. Ride. At Mr. Nelson's invitation, I guess. Mrs. Morella. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Nelson. Mr. Skaggs. Mr. Skaggs. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Ride, for your thoughts this morning and afternoon. I had just one area I would like to ask you to comment on, in general. You were quoted in a recent interview, I think, as identifying the mission to planet Earth initiative as perhaps the most important of the four. I wasn't sure what you were using as your criteria of importance there and wondered if you could expand on that a little bit. Dr. Ride. This is a purely personal opinion. But I believe that the mission to planet Earth is a very important initiative because it's very responsive to what may be a time-critical need. It's an aspect of the space program that actually does pay very close attention to our own world. It's something that could give us answers and help us in the very near future, the next decade or two decades, to understand our own planet, and to understand how we might be influencing that planet, and to understand how those changes, either the ones that we're inducing or just naturally-induced changes, could 77-592 O - 87 -- 3
