Press release about the decision of the Council of Chief Designers on the preparation of Soyuz TMA-3 for launch

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
about the decision of the Council of Chief Designers
on the preparation of Soyuz TMA-3 for launch



September 25, 2003. Korolev, Moscow Area
S.P.Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia hosted a meeting of the
Council of Chief Designers for the Russian Segment of the International
Space Station (The Council chairman and the Technical Manger of Russia's
manned space programs is the Designer General, member of the Russian Academy
of Sciences Yu.P.Semenov).
The meeting heard reports on progress of work on the International Space
Station over the period of April to September, 2003, as well as on the
readiness to implement a new phase in the program.
RSC Energia Deputy Designer General Yu.I.Grigoriev reported on the main
results of Expeditions Six and Seven (ISS-6 and ISS-7) to the International
Space Station, on proposals for the mission plan of Expedition Eight (ISS-8)
and the fifth visiting mission, and provided an overview of the space
station status and progress of preparations for the launch of Soyuz TMA-3
manned spacecraft.
Also heard were reports from Chief Designers, responsible representatives of
system developers and manufacturers for the spacecraft flight readiness;
from V.G.Korzun (first deputy head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center)
about flight readiness of the crews of ISS-8 and visiting mission five; from
V.V.Bogomolov (Deputy Director of the Institute for Medical and Biological
Problems) about the state of health of the crews of ISS-7, ISS-8 and taxi
mission five; from pilot-cosmonaut V.A.Soloviev (head of the Lead Operations
Control Team (LOCT), Head of Division at S.P.Korolev RSC Energia) about ISS
mission progress, mission control documentation readiness, LOCT personnel
and crews readiness for the upcoming docking of Soyuz TMA-3 with the space
station; from A.T.Goryachenkov (Deputy Director General of the Central
Research Institute for Machine-building) - about the findings of this
organization of Rosaviacosmos on the ISS status and Soyuz TMA-3 launch
readiness.
The primary crew of ISS-8, which will be launched on this spacecraft,
consists of Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri (spacecraft commander, ISS-8
flight engineer) and US astronaut Michael Foale (ISS-8 commander, flight
engineer 2 of the spacecraft). The spacecraft crew also includes a citizen
of Spain, an astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA) Pedro Duque
(flight engineer 1 of the spacecraft). He is to work on-board the space
station under the program of visiting mission five (project "Cervantes") and
return to Earth with the crew of ISS-7 on-board Soyuz TMA-2.
The Council of Chief Designers, having reviewed the operational status of
ISS, the readiness status of Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft, the progress of
Soyuz-FG LV processing, readiness of the personnel of Russian and US ground
processing and mission control facilities, readiness of the crews of ISS-7,
ISS-8 and visiting mission five for carrying out mission plans of the space
station and the spacecraft, and also considering positive conclusions about
spacecraft and space station readiness, has made a decision to approve the
following:

results of ISS mission over the period covering April to September 2003;
results of tests and the plan of upcoming work to prepare for launch Soyuz
TMA-3 to replace Soyuz TMA-2 on-board the station as planned and carry out
visiting mission five, returning to Earth the crew of ISS-7 (Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko - crew commander, NASA astronaut Edward Lu -
flight engineer) and Spanish citizen, ESA astronaut Pedro Duque;
the program of studies and experiments for 194-day expedition ISS-8, with
crew of two - Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and US astronaut Michael
Foale;
the program of the 10-day Visiting Mission Five, which calls for the flight
of ESA astronaut Pedro Duque to perform experiments and tests developed by
scientists from Russia and ESA participating countries, including those
within the framework of the Cervantes project.
The meeting of the Council was attended by representatives from
Rosaviacosmos, NASA, ESA, companies and organizations of the space industry
that are involved in the project implementsation.

Soyuz TMA-3 is scheduled to be launched on October 18, 2003 at 9 hours 37
minutes Moscow time.




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Jacques :-)

Editor: www.spacepatches.info