[sarex] Expedition 16 Ready for Launch

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468


	*Expedition 16 Ready for Launch*
9 October 2007

The Soyuz rocket that will launch Expedition 16 to the International 
Space Station was placed at its launch pad over the weekend. Commander 
Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and spaceflight 
participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will launch from the Baikonur 
Cosmodrome Wednesday at 9:22 a.m. EDT. Two days later the Soyuz TMA-11 
vehicle carrying the new crew will dock to the Earth-facing port of the 
station’s Zarya module.

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft was transported by railcar to 
its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Oct. 8, 2007 for 
launch Oct. 10. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
TO VIEW IMAGE GO 
TO:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

The Expedition 15 crew continues readying the station for its new 
residents. Flight Engineeer Clay Anderson has been resizing U.S. 
spacesuits for Whitson and Malenchenko. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and 
Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov set up a work space in the Zvezda service 
module that will allow the visiting Shukor to perform several 
experiments over nine days. The current station crew has also been 
holding space-to-ground teleconferences with Expedition 16 to assist 
with handover activities.

Yurchikhin and Kotov are scheduled to leave the station on Oct. 21 
officially ending the Expedition 15 increment. Shukor will go home with 
the two cosmonauts. Anderson will remain onboard with Expedition 16 and 
return to Earth next month aboard Discovery on its STS-120 mssion.

+ View crew daily timelines 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html>
+ Read more about Expedition 15 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html>
+ Read more about Expedition 16 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition16/index.html>