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 Previous: Brazil to Host Next World Radiosport Team Championship |  Next: The K7RA Solar Update |
 The replacements: Cosmonaut Alex Kaleri, U8MIR (left) and Astronaut Mike Foale, KB5UAC, in their official NASA photograph. [NASA Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 17, 2003--The International Space Station (ISS) crew is getting ready to have company and to head back to Earth. Aboard the ISS since April, Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, this week have been preparing for the arrival of their replacements--the Expedition 8 team of Mike Foale, KB5UAC, and Alexander Kaleri, U8MIR. The Expedition 7 crew also wished all the best to China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei.
"That is very good news, it's nice to see this happen," said Lu, during a conversation with ground controllers in which he also expressed wishes in Chinese that Yang Liwei "have a safe journey" in space. "From one spacefaring nation to another, we wish them congratulations." After sharing space for 14 orbits with the ISS, Yang Liwei's Shenzhou V space capsule landed safely in Mongolia October 16.
Foale, Kaleri
and European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque, KC5RGG/ED4ISS, are set to head
into space themselves Saturday, October 18, at 0538 UTC aboard a Russian Soyuz
transporter. They'll launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
 ESA astronaut Pedro Duque, KC5RGG--shown during training--will ride into space with Foale and Kaleri aboard the Soyuz mission to the ISS. He 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] |
After docking with the ISS on October 20 and a week of crew-change activity, Malenchenko, Lu and Duque will return to Earth aboard the Soyuz vehicle that's now attached to the ISS.
While Duque is onboard the ISS, he will attempt Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) school group contacts October 23 with Ceip Seixalbo School and October 26 with the Casa de las Palabrabas museum, both in his native Spain.
The English-born Foale, 46, will serve as the Expedition 8 commander and NASA ISS science officer. Kaleri, 47, will be the Soyuz commander and ISS flight engineer. A native of Latvia, Kaleri was a member of the backup crew for Expedition 5 and--until the shuttle Columbia tragedy February 1--had been scheduled to be the third Expedition 7 crew member.
With the NASA
shuttle fleet still grounded for another year, two-person crews will be the
rule. NASA says 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."
 The Soyuz TMA-2 transporter now docked on the ISS. [NASA Photo] |
The Soyuz, which carries three passengers, will remain the prime crew transport system. Russian Progress rockets will transport needed supplies. Foale and Kaleri will spend approximately six months aboard the ISS.
Former crew members aboard the Russian Mir space station, Foale and Kaleri are no strangers to long stays in space. Foale 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. This month'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
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