EXP-9 and 10 switch, two press story's

2004-02-04 16:04 SPACE * ISS * CREWS * CHANGES *

ISS CREWS CHANGED DUE TO PROBLEMS WITH US ASTRONAUT WILLIAM MCARTHUR


MOSCOW, February 4, 2004. (RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Kovalyov) -
The crews of the ninth and tenth expeditions to the International Space
Stations were changed because of the problems with American astronaut
William McArthur, said first deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training
Centre, Valery Korzun on Wednesday.

He did not specify for what reasons, organisational, technical or medical,
the 52-year-old NASA astronaut, William McArthur, was replaced.

"The details will possibly be announced after the approval of a new crew by
the state inter-departmental commission which plans to meet at the end of
February," said Korzun.

In his turn, the chief doctor of the Russian Cosmonaut Training Centre,
Valery Morgun, said that "there were no medical contraindications for
changing the crew." Now the main crew, who will go to the ISS on February
19, consists of Russian Gennady Padalka and American Michael Fincke.
Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and astronaut Leroy Chiao have become,
accordingly, their doublers. Dutchman Andre Kuipers from the European Space
Agency will go to the ISS for a week, jointly with Padalka and Fincke.

http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd...row=1&dat e=2
004-02-04&do_alert=0


_________________________________________

Feb 4, 2004: 10:09 AM EST // Switch in next ISS crew lineup considered

MOSCOW (AP, ANNELI NERMAN) - U.S. and Russian space officials are
considering changing the crew of the next mission to the international space
station, a Russian space official said Wednesday.

The proposed change came after NASA decided to replace astronaut William
McArthur with Leroy Chiao, citing unspecified health reasons, said Sergei
Gorbunov, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos. Valery
Tokarev was to be the Russian on the mission, to begin April 19.

But now the agencies are likely to send Michael Fincke and Gennady
Padalka, who have spent considerable time training together, Gorbunov said.

"The reason is simple: the crew is a single, united organism," Gorbunov
said. "They must understand each other, including at a psychological level."

He said the change is expected to be approved in the next few days.
Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers from the European Space Agency is expected to
fill the third seat in the Soyuz spacecraft flight to the space station. But
he would spend only a week at the station.

The station has been limited to two full-time residents since last year'
s suspension of the U.S. space shuttle program in the wake of the Columbia
disaster, which left the Soyuz as the only vehicle to take astronauts to and
from the station.

Switching the crews would change the scientific programs to be conducted
aboard the station, Valery Bogomolov, deputy director of the Institute of
Medical Biological Problems, told the ITAR-Tass news agency.


--
-------------------

Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info

Now the main crew, who will go to the ISS on February
19, consists of Russian Gennady Padalka and American Michael Fincke.
Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and astronaut Leroy Chiao have become,
accordingly, their doublers. Dutchman Andre Kuipers from the European Space
Agency will go to the ISS for a week, jointly with Padalka and Fincke.

http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd...row=1&dat e=2
004-02-04&do_alert=0


_________________________________________

Feb 4, 2004: 10:09 AM EST // Switch in next ISS crew lineup considered

MOSCOW (AP, ANNELI NERMAN) - U.S. and Russian space officials are
considering changing the crew of the next mission to the international space
station, a Russian space official said Wednesday.

The proposed change came after NASA decided to replace astronaut William
McArthur with Leroy Chiao, citing unspecified health reasons, said Sergei
Gorbunov, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos. Valery
Tokarev was to be the Russian on the mission, to begin April 19.

But now the agencies are likely to send Michael Fincke and Gennady
Padalka, who have spent considerable time training together, Gorbunov said.

"The reason is simple: the crew is a single, united organism," Gorbunov
said. "They must understand each other, including at a psychological level."

He said the change is expected to be approved in the next few days.
Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers from the European Space Agency is expected to
fill the third seat in the Soyuz spacecraft flight to the space station. But
he would spend only a week at the station.

The station has been limited to two full-time residents since last year'
s suspension of the U.S. space shuttle program in the wake of the Columbia
disaster, which left the Soyuz as the only vehicle to take astronauts to and
from the station.

Switching the crews would change the scientific programs to be conducted
aboard the station, Valery Bogomolov, deputy director of the Institute of
Medical Biological Problems, told the ITAR-Tass news agency.


--
-------------------

Jacques :-)


Well this confrms no shuttle launch till 2005 or it would be a crew of 3/

From: (Hallerb)

Well this confrms no shuttle launch till 2005 or it would be a crew of 3/

No it doesn't. Do your homework. STS-114 is not a crew rotation mission.

Another Russian press story today (In Russian) contradicts these reports. It
denies that a crew change is in the works:

http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews.shtml?...04120752.shtml