Two-Ham Crew Named for ISS Expedition 8
Astronaut Mike Foale, KB5UAC, gets the final touches on the training
version of his Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit during training at
Johnson Space Center. [NASA Photo]
|
Cosmonaut Alex Kaleri, U8MIR, during training in the ISS Destiny Lab
mockup at Johnson Space Center. [NASA Photo]
|
ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, KC5RGG, will ride into space with Foale and
Kaleri aboard the Soyuz mission to the ISS and will return to
Earth with Expedition 7 crew members Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, and Ed Lu,
KC5WKJ, aboard the Soyuz now docked at the ISS. [NASA Photo]
|
NEWINGTON, CT, Jul 25, 2003--Another two-ham crew will take over the reins
of the International Space Station (ISS) this fall. Veteran NASA
astronaut Mike Foale, KB5UAC,
and
seasoned Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, U8MIR, have
been named as the ISS Expedition 8 crew. As former crew members aboard
the Russian Mir space station, Foale and Kaleri are no strangers
to long stays in space. They'll kick off their latest space station duty
tours October 18 when they launch into space aboard a Russian
Soyuz spacecraft with a third ham, Spain's Pedro Duque,
KC5RGG--representing the European Space Agency (ESA). They'll dock two
days later at the ISS.
The English-born Foale, 46, will serve as the Expedition 8 commander and
NASA ISS science officer. Kaleri will be the Soyuz commander and
ISS flight engineer. They'll replace Expedition 7 crew members Commander
Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, and Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, who have been aboard the ISS
since April.
A native of Latvia, Kaleri, 47, was a member of the backup crew for
Expedition 5 and had been scheduled to be the third Expedition 7 crew
member. With the NASA shuttle fleet still grounded at least until early
next year in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, however, the Expedition 7
crew was trimmed to two people, and Kaleri was the proverbial odd man
out. NASA says the two-person crews are "big enough to maintain
operations onboard the station and small enough to live on a reduced
supply of water and other consumables."
Two-person crews will be the rule at least until the space shuttle--with
its significantly larger cargo and crew capacity--returns to flight. The
Soyuz, which carries three passengers, will remain the prime crew
transport system. Foale and Kaleri are scheduled to spend approximately
six months aboard the ISS.
The backup crew for Expedition 8 is veteran NASA astronaut Bill McArthur,
a retired US Army colonel and Russian veteran cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, a
Russian Air Force colonel. Duque's backup is ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers
of the Netherlands.
Foale, who has been serving as assistant technical director at Johnson
Space Center, is a veteran of five space flights and has spent a total of
nearly 180 days in space--including more than four months on Mir
in 1997. During his Mir stay, Foale found ham radio a valuable
supplement to conventional Russian and NASA communication systems after
the station was damaged in a collision with an unmanned Progress cargo
rocket. Kaleri flew on three Mir missions and has logged 416 days
in space. October's mission will mark Duque's second space flight,
following his mission on the shuttle Discovery on the STS-95
mission in 1998.--information provided by NASA was used in this
report
Page last modified: 01:46 PM, 25 Jul 2003 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
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