USA, Russia announced new crew on ISS

The US Aeronautics Agency (NASA) and the Russian Space Agency have announced the names of four astronauts who will work on the International Space Station (ISS) in the near future, known as the Expedition Team. 15 .

(Photo: ams.pg.infn) Astronauts C. Anderson and Daniel M. Tani will go to ISS next year and serve as flight engineers; and astronaut Fyodor N. Yurchikhin and Oleg V. Kotov will spend 6 months in orbit laboratory.

Anderson will go to ISS on the space shuttle Atlantis on STS-118 mission, scheduled to depart in January 2007. He will return to Earth in the mission STS-120 and Tani will go to ISS instead of him. Tani will return in October 2007 in the mission of STS-122.

Yurchikhin will command the expedition 15 , while Kotov is the ISS station engineer and Soyuz commander. The two will fly to ISS on Soyuz, scheduled to be launched in March 2007.

Preparing for the crew The expedition 15 were astronauts Gregory E. Chamitoff (preparatory for Anderson), Sandra H. Magnus (preparatory for Tani); Roman Y. Romanenko and Mikhail B. Kornienko (reserve for Yurchikhin and Kotov).

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