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Expedition 16 Ready for Launch
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (SPX) Oct 10, 2007 The Soyuz rocket that will launch Expedition 16 to the International Space Station was placed at its launch pad over the weekend. Commander Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Wednesday at 9:22 a.m. EDT. Two days later the Soyuz TMA-11 vehicle carrying the new crew will dock to the Earth-facing port of the station's Zarya module. The Expedition 15 crew continues readying the station for its new residents. Flight Engineeer Clay Anderson has been resizing U.S. spacesuits for Whitson and Malenchenko. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov set up a work space in the Zvezda service module that will allow the visiting Shukor to perform several experiments over nine days. The current station crew has also been holding space-to-ground teleconferences with Expedition 16 to assist with handover activities. Yurchikhin and Kotov are scheduled to leave the station on Oct. 21 officially ending the Expedition 15 increment. Shukor will go home with the two cosmonauts. Anderson will remain onboard with Expedition 16 and return to Earth next month aboard Discovery on its STS-120 mission.
Space station commander ready US astronaut Peggy Whitson grinned broadly when a rope whip with ornate leather handle was presented to her on Tuesday by a member of the ground staff at the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan. It might be useful, he warned her at a pre-launch news conference worthy of the 2006 hit film "Borat", "so that in the presence of men, they understand that you're the commander." Whitson, a 47-year-old biochemist who has previously spent six months on the orbiting station and is to take charge there after blasting off on Wednesday, looked sure of herself as she fielded questions from behind a glass screen set up to limit infections. "I hope I won't have to use this," she said, flourishing the whip before adding with a laugh, "but all the same." Her fellow crew member, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, would not be drawn on a subject that attracted attention on his last stay in space: his wedding via video link-up to a US woman on Earth. "It's a personal thing," he said, when asked if he recommended such weddings. "I can't give anyone advice. It's up to the individual." Related Links Expedition 16 Station at NASA Station and More at Roscosmos S.P. Korolev RSC Energia Watch NASA TV via Space.TV Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com
Expedition 16 Crew To Launch From Baikonur
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (SPX) Oct 02, 2007Commander Peggy Whitson and Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko of the 16th International Space Station crew are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at about 10:21 a.m. EDT on Oct. 10 to begin a six-month stay in space. With them will be spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. He is a Malaysian flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency. |
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