Obama's budget would cancel NASA's Constellation Program, which had sought to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020. NASA released its 2011 budget on Monday, February 1, 2010, saying the International Space Station will be extended likely to 2020 or beyond enabling this vital orbiting laboratory to reach its full potential.

The next team of astronauts travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) and their backup crew were tested on Tuesday (November 27) ahead of their flight next month.

The ISS Expedition 34/35 crew, comprised of Russian cosmonaut Commander Roman Romanenko, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn signed off on training and exam documents and worked on a Soyuz rocket simulator at the Star City cosmonaut training centre outside of Moscow.

The three have been training for more than four years for this mission which is scheduled for December 19. The crew will try to gauge the effects of long stays in space on the human body as well as other experiments.

"In my case, it will be taking samples of experiments that have stayed for a long time on the surface (of the space station) and also the installation, a new experimental environment," Romanenko told reporters who were allowed to view training and testing at the centre.

Marshburn said he hoped the experiments would have applications for future space travelers, not just astronauts.

"One of the most important things about us doing this long-duration flight now is how can we and the ground team get better at long-duration flight, because that's key to exploration, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that," Marshburn said.

Hadfield said the crew was comfortable in their training and was prepared for emergencies.

"There are three major problems that could happen on a space station that are the most dangerous: one is a leak, where the air is coming out of the station; two is being poisoned by the atmosphere with ammonia or some other chemical; and the third is fire.

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Space Station Astronauts Tested Ahead of Mission