Russia approves ISS crew

Russia Tuesday approved the crew of a new expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of the launch Oct 23.

The new expedition is to launch on October 23 (Image credit: news.bioscholar.com)

The crew comprises Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin, and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, while the backup crew includes Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy.It will be the first space mission for Novitsky and Tarelkin.

Ford spent 14 days in space when he travelled to the ISS as the shuttle Discovery pilot in 2009. The launch date of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft was earlier changed from Oct 15 to Oct 23 due to a technical problem. The crew is expected to spend 148 days on board the orbital station and will carry out a series of scientific experiments. No spacewalks have been scheduled for this mission.

IANS