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MOM IN SPACE?

By A.J. Hostetler

Meet "AstroMom" Lori Garver: McLean resident, Washington space-policy consultant, wife, mother, former NASA official, and now a 41-year-old space cadet.

A self-proclaimed space nut, Garver is competing alongside 'N Sync singer Lance Bass for a Russian ticket to visit the multibillion-dollar International Space Station.

There's no discount Web site for spaceflight. The Russian asking price for the 250-mile-high seat runs a whooping $20 million - and that's without Earth gravity, turn-down service or Jacuzzi.

Unlike the first two space tourists, both multimillionaires who paid their own way, Bass and Garver hope to garner corporate sponsors to underwrite their trips. This summer, the perennially cash-strapped Russian space agency put Bass' name on its passenger list for a fall flight, despite some wrangling over payment and his qualifications, as well as expressions of concern from the United States and other partners. The move sets up Garver as a likely passenger for the Russian flight scheduled for next spring.

Meanwhile, there's the small matter of proving she has the "right stuff." In addition to language and physical training, Garver will have to rough it in some of the world's most inhospitable terrain - Siberia.

"The Russians put people through pretty rigorous training. This is not casual for them," said Dr. John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute and Garver's former professor.

Garver so wants to go that she had surgery to satisfy Russian worries about her gallstones. She's so gung-ho that she quickly declares how much she loves camping when talking about her upcoming visit to Siberia.

Garver's space dream was inspired as a child by the first moonwalk - "The whole world stopped," she recalls - and later fueled by astronauts Sally Ride and John Glenn. She hopes her mission will similarly capture the imagination of the nation's mothers and their children.

"We are an exploring species. As explorers, we will go beyond [Earth]. It's really just a matter of time," she said. "It could be thousands of years away, and if we don't get started, we won't do it." Her major goal is to communicate to the public the rationale for the country's space program.

"In my 20 years-plus in the business, I've thought that we have not had the public outreach, especially to women, to have them recognize the value of the space program," Garver said. "My philosophy is based on that we need to be in space to not only survive as a species, but to learn more about the environment, and other planets' evolution, to learn how we can help our own planet and ultimately protect ... against the end of our civilization.

"The space program is very important to our future."

While Garver's chances to make the flight this fall are dimming, the extra wait will give her more time to meet the requirements: three to six months of physical training, training aboard a Soyuz to become familiar with the rocket, two weeks of training on a mock-up of the space station and two weeks in Siberia.

She also has to learn at least 1,000 words in Russian to communicate with other crew members. Another trip to Star City, the Russian cosmonaut center outside Moscow, is likely in January.

When she decided to pitch the idea, Garver was well-acquainted with what she would have to endure to hitch a ride into space. Before joining DFI International in 2001, she had been a policy official with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and ran the National Space Society, an advocacy organization.

It was while she worked for space icon Glenn, during his 1984 presidential campaign and in his Senate office, that she saw how a desire to have a political impact could be combined with her love of space.

Her first visit to Russia in 1998 to watch the launch of the space station's first element planted the seeds of her decision to seek a seat on the Soyuz. Traveling with other NASA officials, she visited Star City to see cosmonauts in training.

"I just fell in love with it," she said.

The Michigan native promised herself she would return.

She did make it back - not with NASA but as a vice president with DFI, a strategic-management and consulting firm in Washington. As head of DFI's space program, she advises U.S. and foreign businesses, large and small, on the federal government's space plans and how the businesses might fit in.

During a visit last fall to one of those clients in Russia, she decided to pursue the idea of getting corporations to foot the bill to send an average person into space. Originally, she proposed two of her co-workers - younger, childless men who speak some Russian - as the lucky tourists.

They turned it around and told her that she was the one who had the drive to do it. And besides, they said, she represented better demographics and buying power to potential corporate sponsors.

In the end, Garver saw their point.

"It took somebody who really, truly believed in it, because it's taken over my life," she said.

At Christmas, after encouragement from her husband, David Brandt, and two sons, Wesley and Mitchell, she made the decision to go herself. Her parents were supportive, she said, despite her mother's fears for her safety.

Early this year, she formally spoke with Russian space officials and began the process. DFI and a hired agent began searching for sponsors, and a Dutch firm, MirCorp, is set to handle the financial transaction.

"AstroMom" was launched.

First, she had to get medical certification from Russian officials. In February, she went through two weeks of evaluations in Star City.

"They check every inch of you. It was really a depressing day," she said, when she learned she couldn't complete the certification until her gallbladder and the offending gallstones were removed.

In May, when Garver returned to Star City to complete her medical certification, Bass arrived amid much hype. They ended up going through the process together. The teen-pop idol celebrated Garver's birthday with her over dinner after they experienced eight G's on the centrifuge test, which simulates the acceleration and deceleration of launch and re-entry.

Now Garver watches the Bass-Russian negotiations with the calm of a second-string quarterback watching the Super Bowl. Quietly, she and her employer continue to line up corporate sponsors - Garver will only name one, RadioShack.

AstroMom's Web site notes that Garver's Washington background gives her the experience as a spokeswoman, "able to film commercials for food, beverage, electronics, music or online products." She points out that as a baby-boomer suburban mother of two boys, she represents a different demographic than the glamorous Bass, nearly 20 years her junior.

Garver's planned sponsors include an education organization, and she talks about working with the National Geography Bee, perhaps during or after her trip. When not filming commercials or conducting business on the trip, Garver said, she could assist the Russians on some of their medical experiments. In addition, she would have light duty as cook and housekeeper, as well as helping move supplies into the space station.

Mostly, however, Garver's focus would be to fulfill her sponsorship agreements.

"These 'Soyuz taxi missions' are for six- to eight-day stays on the [space station], and not well-suited for research," Garver said.

Space analysts question whether the flights are suitable for tourists.

John Pike, a longtime space analyst in suburban Washington, hopes Garver has fun, and he doesn't begrudge her the opportunity to rocket into space.

"It's fun and exciting that somebody who's not a zillionaire is going to get to do it," Pike said. But his concern is that "the only time people notice the space station is when there's a tourist up there.

"It's becoming an exotic adventure vacation for people who have a lot of money."

Strapped for cash, the Russian space agency has received financial help several times from NASA, which is worried about its investment in the increasingly expensive space station.

Although more than a dozen countries are involved in the space station, much of it won't be built without Russia. Right now, its rockets are the only way to get people back and forth from the station, other than NASA's space shuttle.

"The most-critical aspect of the [space station] at this point is funding safe and continuous operation of the only crew-escape mechanism available, the Soyuz," Garver said. "The Russians have been quite clear that they require the funds from the private-sector sale of the third seat in order to keep the Soyuz production line open.

"The bottom line, if the seat cannot be sold commercially, NASA [funded by U.S. taxpayers] will have to fund the Soyuz or risk [losing] permanent occupation of the station."

Without income, from space tourism or some other source, Pike predicts, the headline for the story of space flight in the 21st century will be this: "Space Age Ends."

© Copyright 2002 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.