[sarex] NASA to Rotate Station Astronauts on Next Shuttle

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468


	
	*NASA to Rotate Station Astronauts on Next Shuttle*

Image above: Flight Engineer Suni Williams sets up a video camera in the 
Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Image credit: 
NASA

TO V IEW IMAGE GO TO:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

After working aboard the International Space Station since December, 
Expedition 15 Flight Engineer Suni Williams will come back to Earth 
aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, targeted for launch June 8. That 
shuttle mission, STS-117, will carry her successor, astronaut Clay 
Anderson, to the station to begin his duty as an Expedition 15 flight 
engineer.

The exchange of Anderson and Williams was originally planned for the 
STS-118 mission, now targeted for launch in August. However, that 
flight, first set to fly in June, had to be postponed after an 
unexpected hail storm damaged Atlantis' external fuel tank and delayed 
STS-117.

+ Read the April 26, 2007, press release 
<http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/apr/HQ_07093_Williams_Return.html>

With the new plan, Williams' mission on the station will be 
approximately the same length as originally anticipated. She launched to 
the station on Dec. 9, 2006, with the STS-116 crew on space shuttle 
Discovery and joined the station's Expedition 14 crew.

Williams later became a member of the Expedition 15 crew, joining 
Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov who arrived 
at the orbital complex on April 9.

Williams' former crewmates, Expedition 14 Commander Michael 
Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, returned to Earth 
along with spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi aboard their Soyuz 
TMA-9 spacecraft on April 21.

+ View Expedition 14 landing images 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/exp14_landing_images.html> 


+ Read more about Expedition 15 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html>
+ Read more about Expedition 14 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/index.html>
+ View Crew's Daily Timelines 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html>