ISS crew assignments changed

Thursday, Feb. 5, 2004. Page 3

'Incompatible' ISS Crew Ditched

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2004/02/05/012.html

By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer

The crew lined up for the next flight to the international space
station in April will be changed after cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and U.S.
astronaut Leroy Chiao developed "a psychological incompatibility" during
training, Russian space officials said Wednesday.

The switch will be the second for the Expedition 9 crew, which is
scheduled to lift off for the ISS on April 19. NASA replaced its first
choice astronaut for the flight, William McArthur, with Chiao on Jan. 12,
saying McArthur had experienced "temporary medical issues."

Chiao had been preparing with Tokarev at the Gagarin Cosmonaut
Training Center in Star City outside Moscow, but the two didn't hit it off,
a Russian Aviation and Space Agency official said by telephone Tuesday.

"One of the factors was a psychological incompatibility," said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

So the trip instead will be made by cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and U.S.
astronaut Michael Fincke, who were previously slated to fly to the ISS in
the fall as Expedition 10, the official said.

Also going on the April flight is the European Space Agency astronaut
Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands.

Kuipers will spend a few days aboard the ISS before returning to Earth
with cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and U.S. astronaut Michael Foale, who are
currently living on board the station.

Tokarev and McArthur -- who has already overcome his health
problems -- are now planned to fly as Expedition 10, the space official
said.

He said NASA was already aware of the planned switch and it would take
about two weeks to complete the paperwork giving the U.S. side notification
of the plan.

NASA spokeswoman Deborah Rahn said by telephone from Washington that
she had "no official information" about the switch.

A NASA representative in Moscow confirmed he knew about the plan but
said he had not heard of any personal conflicts between Chiao and Tokarev.

Although Padalka and Fincke are now in line to become the next ISS
crew, they may end up grounded if either develops health problems or fails
to pass a final check at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in April, the Russian space
official said.

Chiao and cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov are now training as their backup
crew in Star City, he said.

The crew lined up for the next flight to the international space
station in April will be changed after cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and U.S.
astronaut Leroy Chiao developed "a psychological incompatibility" during
training, Russian space officials said Wednesday. . . .
Chiao had been preparing with Tokarev at the Gagarin Cosmonaut
Training Center in Star City outside Moscow, but the two didn't hit it
off

Paying attention to such things is based on a lesson learned, roughly
from the shuttle-Mir time period.

For some of the crew rotations, there had been a tendency to rotate
parts of a crew. And the lesson learned was that it was easier on the
crew (and I suppose conducive to productivity and everything, although
I don't know exactly how they measured success), if the same crew
stayed together, had trained on the ground together, and had shown
that they had a rapport.