New Space Station Crew Set for Holiday Arrival Friday

by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

Date: 22 December 2011 Time: 03:45 PM ET

SHARE

Expedition 30 crew members from left; NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko and ESA Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers are seen following a press conference held at the Cosmonaut Hotel, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The launch of the Soyuz spacecraft with Expedition 30 NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer Andre Kuipers is scheduled for Wednesday. The young student designed the crew patch for the expedition. CREDIT: NASA/Carla Cioffi View full size image

Three spaceflyers who launched on a Russian rocket Wednesday (Dec. 21) are preparing to dock at the International Space Station tomorrow (Dec. 23), just in time for the holidays.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency (ESA) are due to join the long-duration crew of the orbiting outpost for about five months.
The trio lifted off atop the Russian Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft from the snowy Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:16 a.m. EST (1316 GMT) on Wednesday. They are expected at the space station on Friday at 10:22 a.m. EST.

MORE: http://www.space.com/14020-astronaut-crew-approaching-space-station-holidays.html






gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
Friends of the Zeiss < http://friendsofthezeiss.org >
Electronic Mail - < gawalsh@planetarium.cc >
SPACE & SCIENCE NEWS, ASTRONOMICAL CALENDAR:
  < http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Twitter: < http://twitter.com/spacewatchtower >
Facebook: < http://www.facebook.com/pages/SpaceWatchtower/238017839577841?sk=wall >
Blog: < http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/ >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh:
  < http://www.planetarium.cc >
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago:
  < http://adlerplanetarium.tripod.com >
* Astronomer, Educator, Optician John A. Brashear:
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com >
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries:
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
* Civil War Museum of Andrew Carnegie Free Library:
  < http://garespypost.tripod.com >
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh:
  < http://inclinedplane.tripod.com >
* Public Transit:
  < http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/transit >