By William Atkins
Tuesday, 09 October 2007
International Space Station Expedition 16 crew members Whitson, Malenchenko, and Shukor are ready to liftoff from a Soyuz-FG rocket on Wednesday, October 10, 2007, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The crew consists of American astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and Malaysian space tourist
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
They are scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) two days later, on October 12. The ISS Expedition 16 mission will last until the spring of 2008.
Peggy Whitson is the commander of the Expedition 16 crew, while Yuri Malenchendo is its flight engineer and the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft commander. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor is a spaceflight participant from Malaysia.
Whitson will become the first woman commander of the space station. Previously, she was a member of the Expedition 5 crew, having served onboard the ISS from June 7 to December 7, 2002. During her stay she installed micrometeoroid shielding on the Russian Zvezda Service Module and activated the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox. She was also named the first NASA Science Officer while her stay onboard the station. She conducted 21 experiments in human life sciences and microgravity sciences while on the mission.
Malenchendo was the commander of the ISS Expedition 7 crew in 2003. He was also a mission specialist for STS-106 in 2000 and commanded the Mir 16 mission in 1996.
During his twelve-day stay at the station, Shukor will not just be a space tourist but will also have the job of studying the effects of microgravity (what is commonly called zero-gravity) and space radiation on microbes. A possible vaccine for HIV will also be studied.
NASA astronaut Daniel M. Tani, another member of the Expedition 16 crew will arrive at the ISS on STS-120 aboard space shuttle Discovery. Tani will be a flight engineer for the mission. STS-120 is scheduled to liftoff from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 23, 2007. Tani will replace Expedition 15/16 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson, who will return with the STS-120 crew.
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Léopold Eyharts will become a member of the Expedition 16 crew when he arrives aboard space shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-122. December 6, 2007 is the scheduled liftoff day of the mission from the NASA launch facility in Florida. Tani will return to Earth when Atlantis leaves the space station after completing its assembly mission.
NASA astronaut Garrett E. Reisman will fly to the space station onboard space shuttle Endeavour on STS-123, becoming a flight engineer for the Expedition 16 mission, and will stay onboard to become a member of the ISS Expedition 17 crew. STS-123 is scheduled to be launched on February 14, 2008.
