spacetoday.net: Next ISS crew approved

Posted: Sat, Apr 10, 2004, 5:03 PM ET (2103 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

NASA officials Friday officially approved the next crew to stay on the International Space Station while saying that they were considering a Russian proposal to have the following crew spend a year on the orbiting outpost. The Expedition 9 crew of Gennady Padalka and Michael Fincke are scheduled to launch to the station on April 18, along with ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers; Padalka and Fincke will spend six months on the station while Kuipers will return April 29 with the Expedition 8 crew of Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri. NASA officials also said Friday that they were considering a proposal by the Russians to have the Expedition 10 crew, scheduled to launch in October, stay on the station for a full year instead of six months. The longer stay would allow Russia to sell two seats on the Soyuz taxi flight scheduled for launch in April 2005, assuming the shuttle has not returned to service by then and can resume the job of ferrying crews. NASA will make a decision on the Russian proposal within a few weeks.