New crew members arrive at space station

Fri, 17 Dec 2010

Moscow - Three new crew members arrived at the International Space Station Friday.

US astronaut Catherine "Cady" Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli arrived aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft at the station for a five-month stay in space. The craft blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Thursday.

They join fellow expedition members Scott Kelly of the US and Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka of Russia, who have been living on the ISS since October.

Nespoli is the third long-term occupant of the ISS from the European Space Agency. He is to oversee an increase of research in the agency's Columbus module.

The Russians plan two spacewalks to install a communications antenna and do other maintenance work during the mission.

Three supply vehicles are also due to arrive at the station in January and February, including a Japanese cargo vehicle, a European Space Agency vehicle and a Russian module.

The space shuttle Discovery is due to pay a visit in February after its launch was delayed. The shuttle fleet is to go into retirement next year, leaving the Soyuz as the only craft available to take astronauts into space until US plans to develop commercial crew transport can be enacted.

Russian space officials Friday were investigating the cause of how contact was lost with the Soyuz space capsule for hours a day earlier as it traveled to the ISS. But they insisted that there had been "no danger" to the crew.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358729,members-arrive-space-station.html.