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Three International Space Station crews announced NASA NEWS RELEASE Posted: February 12, 2007 WASHINGTON - NASA and its international partners have named the crews that will live and work aboard the International Space Station for the next two years. The crew members make up three expeditions to the station and represent four space agencies. The assignments include the first long-duration station flight for a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and the second long-duration station flight for an astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA). The JAXA and ESA astronauts will work on the installation and checkout of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo and European Columbus laboratories on the station. NASA astronaut and veteran station crew member Peggy A. Whitson will command Expedition 16, set to begin in fall 2007. The flight engineers for the mission include cosmonaut and Russian Air Force Col. Yuri I. Malenchenko, ESA astronaut and French Air Force Brig. Gen. Leopold Eyharts and NASA astronaut Garrett E. Reisman. Malenchenko will command the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that will carry him and Whitson to the station and return them to Earth in spring 2008. They will join NASA astronaut Daniel M. Tani aboard the station. Eyharts will fly to the station on space shuttle mission STS-122, which is expected to deliver the Columbus lab this fall. Eyharts will remain on the station to oversee activation and checkout of the laboratory, while Tani takes the shuttle home. Reisman will fly on shuttle Endeavour's STS-123 mission to replace Eyharts. Reisman will remain on the station for about six months and return on shuttle mission STS-119, targeted for summer 2008. Russian Air Force Lt. Col. Sergei Volkov will command Expedition 17. Expedition 17 flight engineers include cosmonaut Oleg D. Kononenko and NASA astronaut Sandra H. Magnus. Kononenko will command the Soyuz spacecraft that will carry him and Volkov to the station in spring 2008 and bring them home in fall 2008. Magnus will arrive on STS-119 and remain aboard the station. Magnus will return on the STS-126 mission targeted for summer 2008. NASA astronaut and station veteran Air Force Lt. Col. E. Michael Fincke will command Expedition 18. Expedition 18 flight engineers include cosmonaut and veteran station crew member Russian Air Force Col. Salizhan S. Sharipov, JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA astronaut Gregory E. Chamitoff. Sharipov will command the Soyuz that will carry him and Fincke to the station in fall 2008 and back to Earth in spring 2009. Wakata will fly to the station on STS-126 to replace Magnus. Magnus will return to Earth on STS-126. Chamitoff will fly to the station on the STS-127 mission, targeted for winter 2008, the third and final flight for assembly of the Japanese Kibo lab. Wakata will return to Earth on STS-127. Chamitoff will return home on a later shuttle or Soyuz mission. Expedition 16 backup crew members:
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Space shuttle Atlantis emerges from its processing hangar at dawn February 7 for the short trip to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center's Complex 39.
Shuttle Columbia carried the first United States Microgravity Laboratory during its summer 1992 flight to orbit. The Spacelab science expedition was the longest shuttle mission to date, thanks to the new Extended Duration Orbiter equipment flown for the first time. The crew of STS-50 narrate the highlights in this post-flight film.
The documentary "Research Project: X-15" looks at the rocketplane program that flew to the edge of space in the effort to learn about the human ability to fly at great speeds and aircraft design to sustain such flights.
On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire that took the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, a remembrance service was held January 27 at the Kennedy Space Center's memorial Space Mirror.
This documentary takes a look at the technical aspects of Project Mercury, including development of the capsule and the pioneering first manned flights of America's space program.
NASA's New Horizons space probe will fly past Jupiter in late February, using the giant planet's gravity as a sling-shot to bend the craft's trajectory and accelerate toward Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Mission officials describe the science to be collected during the Jupiter encounter during this briefing.