03-26-09: Expedition 19 crew launches to Space Station

William Atkins
Thursday, 26 March 2009 20:15

Science - Space

The new Expedition crewmembers will be a part of the first six-person crew for the Space Station—the ISS Expedition 20 crew.

On May 27, 2009, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, and U.S. astronaut Bob Thirsk are scheduled to be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome inside their Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft.

They will arrive at the Space Station two days later for the historic doubling of capacity of the orbiting space facility.

In addition, NASA states, “After all the astronauts are aboard, Expedition 20 will begin, ushering in an era of six-person station crews. This mission also will be the first time the crew members represent all five International Space Station partners.”

These five members are the United States (space agency: NASA), Russia (RSA), Canada (CSA), Japan (JAXA), and the European Union (ESA).

For more information about the space station and how to view it from Earth, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

For additional information on crewmember assignments for the ISS through 2010, read NASA media brief "NASA Assigns Space Station Crews, Updates Expedition Numbering ."