New Crew Members, Including NASA Biologist, Launch to Space Station

[baa...@earthlink.net]

July 07, 2016

RELEASE 16-072

New Crew Members, Including NASA Biologist, Launch to Space Station

Three crew members representing the United States, Russia and Japan are on
their way to the International Space Station after launching from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:36 p.m. EDT Wednesday, July 6 (7:36
a.m. Baikonur time, July 7).

Kate Rubins of NASA, Soyuz Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space
agency Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
are traveling in an upgraded Soyuz spacecraft. They'll spend two days --
and 34 Earth orbits - testing modified systems before docking to the space
station's Rassvet module at 12:12 a.m. EDT Saturday, July 9.

NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 11:30 p.m. Friday, July 8. Hatches
are scheduled to open about 2:50 a.m. Saturday, July 9, with NASA TV coverage
starting at 2:30 a.m.

The arrival of Rubins, Ivanishin and Onishi returns the station's crew
complement to six. The three will join Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams
of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin of
Roscosmos. The Expedition 48 crew members will spend four months
conducting more than 250 science investigations in fields such as biology,
Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology development.

Rubins, who holds a bachelor's degree in molecular biology and a doctorate
in cancer biology, Ivanishin and Onishi are scheduled to remain aboard the
station until late October. Williams, Skripochka and Ovchinin will return to
Earth in September.

Expedition 48 crew members are expected to receive and install the
station's first international docking adapter, which will accommodate
future arrivals of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. Scheduled for delivery on
SpaceX's ninth commercial resupply mission (CRS-9) to the station, the new
docking port features built-in systems for automated docking and uniform
measurements. That means any spacecraft may use the adapters in the future
- from NASA's new crewed and uncrewed spacecraft, developed in
partnership with private industry, to international spacecraft yet to be
designed. The work by private companies to take on low-Earth orbit missions
is expected to free up NASA's resources for future crewed missions into deep
space, including the agency's Journey to Mars, with the Orion crew capsule
launching on the Space Launch System rocket.

Investigations arriving on SpaceX CRS-9 in July will test capabilities
for sequencing DNA in space, regulating temperatures aboard spacecraft,
understanding bone loss, and tracking ships around the world. Other
investigations will study how to protect computers from radiation in space
and test an efficient, three-dimensional solar cell.

The crew members also are scheduled to receive Orbital ATK's sixth
commercial resupply mission and two Russian Progress resupply flights
delivering several tons of food, fuel, supplies and research. A Japanese
cargo craft will deliver new lithium-ion batteries to replace the
nickel-hydrogen batteries currently used on the station to store electrical
energy generated by the station's solar arrays.

For more than 15 years, humans have been living continuously aboard the
International Space Station to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate
new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that
also will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space.
A truly global endeavor, more than 200 people from 18 countries have visited
the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 1,900 research
investigations from researchers in more than 95 countries.

Check out the full NASA TV schedule and video streaming information at:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Keep up with the International Space Station, and its research and crews, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Get breaking news, images and features from the station on Instagram and
Twitter:

http://instagram.com/iss

and

http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

-end-