Mon, Dec 21, 2009
Two Day Ride Ahead For American, Russian, and
Japanese
NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi safely
launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft to the International
Space Station on Sunday. Less than 10 minutes after launch,
their spacecraft reached orbit and its antennas and solar arrays
were deployed. It will take two more days to reach
the station before docking.
Creamer, 50, a U.S. Army colonel from Upper Marlboro, Md., will
be making his first spaceflight. Kotov, 44, a physician and Russian
Air Force colonel, will be making his second spaceflight and
serving his second tour aboard the station. Noguchi, 44, an
aeronautical engineer from Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan, will be
making his second spaceflight.
Creamer, Kotov and Noguchi will complete the Expedition 22 crew
when they dock to the station on Dec. 22. They will join Jeff
Williams, a NASA astronaut and the station commander, and Max
Suraev, a Russian cosmonaut and station flight engineer, who have
been living aboard the orbiting laboratory since Oct. 2.
The station's five residents have some busy months ahead. Kotov
and Suraev will conduct a planned spacewalk in January from the
Pirs airlock, part of the station's Russian segment. Less than a
week later, Williams and Suraev will fly the Soyuz spacecraft that
brought them to the station from its current location on the end of
the outpost's Zvezda service module to the new Poisk module. In
February, the crew will welcome a Progress unmanned resupply ship
and space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission. Endeavour and its
crew will deliver the new Tranquility node and its cupola, one of
the last major portions of the station to be installed.
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