Astronaut, Cosmonaut, And 'Tourist' Will Dock Monday

The 12th International Space Station crew and one "space flight participant" lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome late Friday night, heading towards a Monday rendezvous with the orbiting space station.

Commander William McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev (photo below) launched aboard their Soyuz TMA spacecraft at 11:55 p.m. EDT Friday to begin a 182-day stay in space. The capsule reached orbit a little less than nine minutes after liftoff, and Russian flight controllers reported that all appeared normal.

According to a NASA press release, the Soyuz is scheduled to dock with the station at 1:32 a.m. EDT on Oct. 3.

McArthur, 54, a retired Army colonel, is a veteran of three shuttle flights, including one to the station and one to the Russian space station Mir. Tokarev, 52, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, is a veteran of one spaceflight, to the international space station aboard a space shuttle.

Also onboard the Soyuz Friday was American Greg Olsen, the third private citizen in space. Olsen is believed to have paid $20 million to the Russian Federal Space Agency to go into orbit (the exact amount was not disclosed) but he won't be merely along for the ride. During his stay on the ISS, Olsen will also participate in experiments to study possible causes of nausea and lower back pain.

Olsen said in an interview earlier this week he prefers the term "space flight participant" over the somewhat-derisive "space tourist," as he endured over 900 hours of training to participate in the flight into orbit.

The American millionaire scientist will spend eight days aboard the ISS, before returning to Earth with the Expedition 11 crew. Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer John Phillips have been on the orbiting laboratory since April.

The Expedition 11 crew and Olsen (photo below) will undock Oct. 10 in the Soyuz TMA that brought Krikalev and Phillips to the station April 16. A Soyuz is always kept docked at the station while it is manned, for the crew to use to return to Earth as well as to function as a "lifeboat" in case of a situation requiring the crew to abandon the station.

Landing is scheduled for 9:08 p.m. EDT that day in the steppes of Kazakhstan, winding up their 180-day excursion to the ISS.

Just after they board the station, McArthur and Tokarev will receive a safety briefing and then begin extensive handover briefings from their Expedition 11 predecessors. They will get training on the station's Canadarm2 and on systems and experiments on the station.

During their stay on the station the Expedition 12 crew will do two or three spacewalks. The first, from the Quest airlock in U.S. spacesuits, is planned for early November. Tasks include installation of a camera group and retrieval of the station's floating potential probe.

That will be McArthur's third spacewalk and the first for Tokarev.

About two weeks later the crew members will board their Soyuz spacecraft and move it from the Pirs docking compartment to a docking port on the Zarya module. That will clear the Pirs for use of its airlock in a spacewalk using Russian Orlan suits in December.

That spacewalk will focus on retrieving scientific experiments and photography of a micrometeoroid monitoring system and the Soyuz descent module's multilayer insulation.

A third spacewalk early next year in U.S. spacesuits is under consideration.

McArthur and Tokarev also are scheduled to welcome an unpiloted Progress cargo craft to the station, just in time for Christmas. That Progress will bring fuel, equipment, supplies, water, oxygen and air to the station. Docking is planned for Dec. 23.

Station maintenance will occupy considerable time. They will continue scientific investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory, as well as a program of scientific education activities and Earth observations.

Their replacements, the 13th crew of the station, are scheduled to arrive in March. 

FMI: NASA Expedition 12 Webpage