NASA announced Feb. 9 the selection of three astronauts for six-month missions to the International Space Station in 2016, including an astronaut making her first spaceflight and one who has spent more than a year on the station.
Kate Rubins will fly to the ISS in May 2016, accompanied by Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency as members of Expeditions 48 and 49. Rubins, selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2009, will be making her first trip to space.
Shane Kimbrough will join the ISS crew in September 2016 for Expeditions 49 and 50. Kimbrough, who previously flew on the STS-126 shuttle mission in 2008, will be joined by Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos.
Peggy Whitson is scheduled to go to the ISS in November 2016 on Expeditions 50 and 51. Whitson has spent 377 days in space on two prior tours on the ISS, and was the first woman to command the ISS on Expedition 16 in 2007 and 2008. She will travel to the station with Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency.
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