Six Person ISS Crew a Reality at Last

The Soyuz TMA-15 mission successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) today, bringing three new international crew members who will reside aboard the station for 6 months. They join the three-person international crew already aboard the station, who will remain for another 4 months. For the first time, the ISS has a permanent crew of six which should permit significantly more scientific research to be conducted.

After more than 10 years of assembly flights, the ISS finally has a full crew complement and the crew represents the international character of the ISS partnership: two from Russia and one each from the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan. According to the European Space Agency, this is the first time that representatives from all the space station partners are aboard the station at the same time. A “permanent crew” does not mean that these individuals will remain in orbit permanently. Instead, it means that at any given time, 6 crew members will be aboard the station, with crew members rotating on a regular basis. The three who have been aboard the station for several weeks already (“Expedition 20”) will be replaced in October; the crew members who arrived today will be replaced in November.

Eight more shuttle missions will continue to take elements of the ISS into orbit to complete construction and outfit the facility for years of operations. The next flight, STS-127, is due for launch in June to deliver the final two parts of Japan’s laboratory, Kibo; one segment already is on orbit. NASA hopes to complete all eight shuttle flights by Sept. 30, 2010, but that deadline — set during the Bush Administration — has been relaxed. NASA will take whatever time it needs to assure crew safety, although there are no funds allocated to shuttle flights after that date, which is raising some concern in Congress. (See our hearing summaries for the NASA budget hearings on May 19 and May 21, 2009.)