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*** JAXA MAIL SERVICE ***
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
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Announcement of Japanese Expedition Crew
to the International Space Station (ISS)

February 13, 2007 (JST)
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Space organizations in Canada, the European Union, Japan, Russia and
the United States have agreed on the following schedule and members
for the 16th to 18th Expedition Crew that will stay on the
International Space Station (ISS). We are pleased to announce that
Astronaut Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) was selected as a prime member of the Expedition 18 Crew and
Astronaut Soichi Noguchi as his backup. This is the first time for
Japanese to be selected for an Expedition crew member to stay in long
dration on the ISS.


Expected Schedule to Stay on the ISS Fiscal year 2008
Period of Stay About three months
Expected Activities about "Kibo"
Functional check-out of the Pressurized Module and
science experiment there
Assembly and functional check-out of the Exposed
Facility, and other activities
Preparation for flight
Training for operations to assemble the
Japanese Experiment Module Kibo and for operation of
each ISS element and to be on board a Space Shuttle
and Soyuz.

Members of the Expedition 18 Prime Crew
Commander E. Michel Fincke
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA)
(Flying to and from the ISS by Soyuz (Planned))

Flight Engineers
Salizahan Shakirovich Sharipov
(Federal Space Agency, FSA)
(Flying to and from the ISS by Soyuz (Planned))

Koichi Wakata (JAXA)
(Flying to the ISS by the STS-126 (ULF1) and
coming back by STS-127 (2J/A) (Planned))

Gregory E. Chamitoff (NASA)
(Flying to the ISS by STS-127 (2J/A) (Planned) and
coming back by TBD


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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.nl