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09/28/07: Expedition 16 Crew to Launch On October 10 From Baikonur.
Commander Peggy Whitson and Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko of the 16th International Space Station crew are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at about 14:21 UT (10:21 a.m. EDT) on October 10, to begin a six-month stay in space. With them will be spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. He is a Malaysian flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.
He will return to Earth with Expedition 15 crew members, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, on October 21. Expedition 15 launched to the station last April 7. Expedition 16's Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the station a little after 15:47 UT (11:47 a.m. EDT) on Friday, October 12.
Expedition 16 crew members will be welcomed by the Expedition 15 crew, including astronaut Clay Anderson, the third Expedition 15 crew member. He launched to the station aboard the STS-118 mission of Endeavour Aug. 8. He joined Expedition 15 in progress and will provide Expedition 16 with an experienced flight engineer for the first few days of its increment.
Whitson, 47, is on her second mission to the station. She served as a flight engineer on the Expedition 5 crew, launching June 5, 2002, and returning to Earth Dec. 7, after almost 185 days in space. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice University in Houston. She began working for NASA as a research biochemist in 1989 and was selected as an astronaut in 1996.
Malenchenko, 45, a Russian Air Force colonel, is making his third long-duration spaceflight. He spent 126 days aboard the Russian space station Mir beginning July 1, 1994, and commanded the two-person station crew on Expedition 7, spending 185 days in space beginning April 26, 2006. He also was a member of the STS-106 crew of Atlantis on an almost-12-day mission to the station beginning Sept. 8, 2000. He is a graduate of the Kharkov Military Aviation School and the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.
Anderson, 48, holds a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University. He was selected as an astronaut in 1998. This is his first spaceflight.
Astronaut Daniel Tani is scheduled to launch aboard the STS-120 flight of Discovery to replace Anderson as a flight engineer during Expedition 16. Tani, 46, holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was selected as an astronaut in 1996 and flew on Endeavour's STS-108 mission in December 2001. He will be making his second spaceflight.
Two Expedition 17 crew members are expected to arrive next spring to replace Whitson and Malenchenko.
September 2007: Astronaut Peggy A. Whitson (background), Expedition 16 commander, and cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko, flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency, participate in a training session at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia. Whitson and Malenchenko are attired in training versions of Russian Sokol launch and entry suits. Photo credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
September: Astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, Expedition 16 commander, and cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko, flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency, participate in a training session at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia. Whitson and Malenchenko are attired in training versions of Russian Orlan spacesuits. Photo credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
September: Astronaut Peggy A. Whitson (background), Expedition 16 commander, and cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko, flight engineer representing Russia's Federal Space Agency, participate in an underwater spacewalk simulation in the Hydrolab facility at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia. Whitson and Malenchenko are attired in training versions of Russian Orlan spacesuits. Photo credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
June: This crew portrait shows astronaut Peggy Whitson, Expedition 16 commander, with Russia Federal Space Agency's cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (right), flight engineer and Soyuz commander; and astronaut Clay Anderson, flight engineer, who arrived on the station in June. Whitson and Malenchenko, two veterans of previous International Space Station flights, are scheduled to launch to the complex in the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in October for a six-month mission. Anderson will be replaced in October by astronaut Dan Tani of NASA. Credit: NASA
June: This crew portrait shows the variety of crewmembers who will occupy the International Space Station during Expedition 16. Astronaut Peggy Whitson (front row, right), station commander; and Russia's Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (front row, left), flight engineer and Soyuz commander, will join NASA astronaut Clay Anderson (back row, left), flight engineer, in October after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft. Anderson will be replaced in October by astronaut Dan Tani (back row, second from left), flight engineer, who will yield his place in December to Leopold Eyharts of the European Space Agency (back row, third from left). Eyharts will be replaced in February 2008 by astronaut Garrett Reisman (back row, far right), flight engineer. Credit: NASA
April 17: Astronaut Peggy A. Whitson, Expedition 16 commander, dons a training version of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) space suit prior to being submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near the Johnson Space Center. Credit: NASA
Timezones: EST = (UT - 5 hours)
EDT = (UT - 4 hours) = (CDT + 1 hour)
CST = (UT - 6 hours)
CDT = (EDT - 1 hour) = (UT - 5 hours)
PST = (UT - 8 hours)
PDT = (UT - 7 hours)
MDT = (UT - 6 hours)
UT [GMT] = (EDT + 4 hours)
BST = (EDT + 5 hours) or (CDT + 6 hours) = (UT + 1 hour)
CEST = (UT + 2 hours) = (BST + 1 hour)
EDT, CDT, PDT, MDT daylight saving time = EST, CST, PST, MST +1hr. From 2007, this begins on the second Sunday in March, and ends on the first Sunday in November.
[Until 2007, EDT, CDT, PDT, MDT used to start at 02:00 local time on the first Sunday in April. EST, CST, PST started at 02:00 local time on the last Sunday in October.]
UT is also known as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), Z, and UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). It is the time set on the International Space Station.
*Where '/' appears in dates, this site follows the following format: mm/dd/yr
