Veteran NASA astronaut Michael Foale and seasoned
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri are set to be the eighth
crew to live aboard the International Space Station. They’re
scheduled to begin their mission in October, when they launch
into space aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Foale will serve as the Expedition 8 Commander and
NASA/International Space Station Science Officer. Kaleri will
be the Soyuz Commander and Space Station Flight Engineer.
Their mission is scheduled to begin October 18, when the
Russian Soyuz TMA-3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Pedro
Duque, from Spain, will make the outbound trip with Foale and
Kaleri as Flight Engineer and return home 10 days later.
On October 20, the three will dock their Soyuz to the Station
and begin an eight-day transfer process with the Expedition 7
crew, Commander and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Ed
Lu, NASA/International Space Station Science Officer.
On October 28, Malenchenko, Lu and Duque will return to Earth
aboard the Soyuz currently docked to the Station. Malenchenko
and Lu have been aboard the Station since late April.
The backup crew for Expedition 8 is veteran NASA astronaut
Bill McArthur, a retired U.S. Army colonel; Russian veteran
cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, a Russian Air Force colonel; and
Duque’s backup is ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers from the
Netherlands.
Until the NASA Space Shuttle, with its significant cargo
capability, returns to flight, the International Space
Station will be staffed with a crew of two instead of three.
The smaller crew is big enough to maintain operations on
board the Station and small enough to live on a reduced
supply of water and other consumables. Foale and Kaleri are
scheduled to spend approximately six months on board the
Station.
Foale is a veteran of five space flights totaling more than
178 days in space, including more than four months on the
Russian Mir Space Station. Kaleri has flown on three previous
missions to the Mir and has logged 416 days in space.
October’s mission will be Duque’s second space flight,
following his mission on the Shuttle Discovery (STS-95) in
1998.
NASA astronaut biographies and information about the Space
Station are available on the Internet on the NASA space
flight Web site at:
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