William Atkins
Saturday, 28 March 2009 20:52
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 2
Current commander of the Space Station, U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke (Expedition 18) and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, along with Simonyi, will return to Earth on April 7 with the use of the Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, the third member of the ISS Expedition 19 crew, is already onboard the Space Station, having been flown up to space by the STS-119 crew onboard the space shuttle
Discovery. This is the first Japanese astronaut to be part of a Space Station crew.
In addition, commander Pakalka will be the first person to have commanded the ISS on two separate occasions, having done it previously as part of the Expedition 9 crew in 2004 and now starting on April 2, 2009, for the Expedition 19 crew.
He will also be the first commander to command two consecutive expeditions, both Expedition 19 and 20.
Additional information on the Expedition 20 crew is found on NASA's "
Space Station crews."
For additional information please read the Space.com article “
New Crew to Dock at Space Station.”
More information on the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 19 crew is provided by NASA at “
Expedition 19.”