Expedition 16 Docks with the Station
The International Space Station now has 6 crew members on board, after the Soyuz capsule carrying Expedition 16 docked earlier today. Commander Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor floated into the station when the hatches were opened at 12:22 p.m. EDT on Friday.
The station is going to be a busy place for the next week, with all 6 crew members aboard. And then three members will depart on October 21st. Shukor will return with Expedition 15 members Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov.
Whitson is the first female commander of the station. And if the shuttle mission STS-120 launches on schedule, it will bring shuttle commander Pam Melroy to the station. This will be the first time that two female mission commanders are in orbit at the same time.
Original Source: NASA News Release
Recent Posts
NASA is Developing Solutions for Lunar Housekeeping’s Biggest Problem: Dust!
Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send the first astronauts to the Moon since the…
Where’s the Most Promising Place to Find Martian Life?
New research suggests that our best hopes for finding existing life on Mars isn’t on…
Can Entangled Particles Communicate Faster than Light?
Entanglement is perhaps one of the most confusing aspects of quantum mechanics. On its surface,…
IceCube Just Spent 10 Years Searching for Dark Matter
Neutrinos are tricky little blighters that are hard to observe. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in…
Star Devouring Black Hole Spotted by Astronomers
A team of astronomers have detected a surprisingly fast and bright burst of energy from…
What Makes Brown Dwarfs So Weird?
Meet the brown dwarf: bigger than a planet, and smaller than a star. A category…