TAG | ISS Expedition 17 mission to launch 2 Russians and 1 S. Korean |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Wednesday, 02 April 2008 | |
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Two Russian cosmonauts—commander Sergei A. Volkov and flight engineer Oleg D. Kononenko —will be the first two members of the International Space Station’s Expedition 17 crew. This is the first space flight for both men. At thirty-five years of age, Sergei Volkov, will be the youngest person to command the ISS. He is also the son of veteran Russian cosmonaut Alexander Volkov. (While orbiting space station Mir in 1991, the Soviet Union disbanded. He went up into space a Soviet cosmonaut, but returned a Russian cosmonaut.) The first South Korean astronaut, Yi So-yeon, will also be riding to the space station. She is South Korea's first astronaut to go into space. So-yeon will be returning to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft when the Expedition 16 crew returns, after transferring command of the International Space Station to the new Expedition 17 crew. The launch time on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 is 7:16 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (1116 GMT), from launch complex LC-1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The crew will dock at the ISS two days later, on April 10. Once at the ISS, the two Russians will join NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who will transfer from the ISS Expedition 16 crew and join the Expedition 17 crew. Reisman will be later replaced by Gregory Chamitoff, who will be flown into space as a part of the STS-124 mission, which is scheduled to launch on May 31, 2008, aboard the NASA space shuttle Discovery. The two Russians will remain at the space station for about six months, with an expected landing back on Earth on October 23, 2008. They are members of the Russian Federation Space Agency, also known as "Roskosmos", RSA, or RKA. The South Korean astronaut is a member of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). Biographies of the ISS Expedition crew members appear on: NASA ISS Expedition 17 crew. NASA Television will cover the launch on April 8, 2008, live beginning at 6:15 EDT. The launch is scheduled for 7:16 a.m. EDT.
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