The International Space Station’s Expedition 13 crew members must wait at least one more day for the arrival of their new ship mate. Uncooperative weather forced Space Shuttle Program managers to call off Saturday’s launch attempt for Space Shuttle Discovery. The STS-121 mission is now slated to blast off at 3:26 p.m. EDT Sunday.
In addition to delivering a new Expedition 13 crew member, STS-121 will resupply and service the International Space Station.
Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Flight Engineer and Science Officer Jeff Williams are now scheduled to welcome the STS-121 crew and Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency on to the station on Tuesday. Shortly after hatch opening, a seat liner custom made for Reiter will be installed into the Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station. The seat liner will allow Reiter to return to Earth on the Soyuz, and its installation marks the start of Reiter’s tour of duty as a member of Expedition 13. It will be the first time the orbital outpost has had a three-member crew since May 2003.
NASA astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin have been named as the 14th crew of the International Space Station. Expedition 14 is scheduled to begin this fall.
