Wed, Apr 02, 2003
Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (Col.,
Russian Air Force, pictured right) and veteran NASA astronaut Ed Lu
have been named as the primary crew for the planned April 26, 2003,
launch of a Russian Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft to the International
Space Station.
Malenchenko and Lu will be called the Expedition 7 crew. Russian
cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and NASA astronaut Michael Foale are the
backup crewmembers to Malenchenko and Lu.
Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai
Budarin and NASA Space Station Science Officer Don Pettit will
return to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-1 craft in May 2003.
The three Expedition 6 crewmembers were launched on November 23,
2002. They have been aboard the Station since November 25. They
were originally scheduled to return in March aboard the Space
Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-114 mission.
Malenchenko commanded a four-month mission aboard the Mir Space
Station in 1994. He participated in the STS-106 mission aboard
Atlantis in 2000 to prepare the International Space Station for
permanent human occupancy.
Lu (right) is a veteran of two Shuttle flights. In 1997, he flew
aboard Atlantis to the Mir Space Station on the STS-84 mission to
exchange U.S. residents on the Russian complex, and he joined
Malenchenko on STS-106. Malenchenko and Lu were originally
scheduled to fly with Kaleri on Expedition 7 to the Station, which
had been scheduled to launch on the STS-114/ULF-1 (Utilization and
Logistics Flight-1) mission in March. Malenchenko and Lu will
continue to operate the science payloads already on board, as well
as maintaining the Station.
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