Soyuz TMA-16 Ready to Launch Early Tomorrow at 3:14 am EDT
The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft is ready to launch in a few hours from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch is scheduled for 3:14 am EDT on Wednesday, September 30. The three person crew includes a Russian cosmonaut, Maxim Suraev; an American astronaut, Jeffrey Williams; and a Canadian “spaceflight participant,” Guy Laliberte, founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil. The three are scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday. Suraev and Williams will serve as flight engineers on ISS Expedition 21.
Two of the six members of the ISS Expedition 20 crew that is currently on ISS — Commander Gennady Padalka (Russia) and Flight Engineer Michael Garrett (US) — will depart for Earth with Laliberte late on October 10, landing early the next day in Kazakstan. The other four members of Expedition 20 will become part of Expedition 21: Frank de Winne (European Space Agency) who will become the first European commander of the ISS when Expedition 21 begins; Robert Thirsk (Canada), Nicole Stott (US), and Roman Romanenko (Russia).
To keep track of the ever-changing crew complement on ISS, visit NASA’s ISS website.
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