[sarex] Expedition 14’s Soyuz Rocket at Pad for Monday’s Launch

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Expedition 14’s Soyuz Rocket at Pad for Monday’s Launch *
 

The Soyuz rocket that will launch the Expedition 14 crew into orbit is 
now at the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch 
is scheduled for 12:09 a.m. EDT Monday.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer 
Mikhail Tyurin are scheduled to arrive at the station at 1:24 a.m. 
Wednesday. Flying to the station with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will be 
American Anousheh Ansari, the first female spaceflight participant to 
visit the orbiting laboratory. She is flying under contract with the 
Russian Federal Space Agency.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will replace Expedition 13 Commander Pavel 
Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, who are wrapping up a 
six-month stay on the station. European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas 
Reiter will stay on the station and join Expedition 14.

Meanwhile on the station, Expedition 13 is close to ending a busy week 
of joint operations with STS-115. The six-member STS-115 crew arrived at 
the station Sept. 11 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. The STS-115 crew 
used the shuttle and station robotic arms to install the P3/P4 truss and 
its solar arrays on to the station. The crew then conducted three 
spacewalks to prepare the addition for operation.

Atlantis’ undocking is set for 8:50 a.m. Sunday. STS-115 is the first 
construction mission to visit the station since late 2002. STS-116 is 
the next construction mission and it is scheduled to visit the station 
and Expedition 14 as early as December.

The Expedition 13 crew is also preparing for the departure of the 
Progress 21 cargo ship, which is filled with trash and other unneeded 
items. The Progress will undock at 8:28 p.m. Monday. It will then be 
commanded to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere to burn up harmlessly.

For the latest information on STS-115, please visit: 
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html>

+ Expedition 13 Briefing Materials, August 22, 2006 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition13/exp13_brief_082206.html>
+ Expedition 14 Preflight Briefing Materials, August 22, 2006 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/exp14_preflight_brief_082206.html>
+ Next station assembly mission -- 12A 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_assembly_12a.html>
+ Previous station assembly mission -- ULF 1.1 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_assembly_ulf1_1.html>
+ Read more about Expedition 13 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition13/index.html>
+ Read more about Expedition 14 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/index.html>