Posted: Sat, Jul 26, 2003, 10:09 AM ET (1409 GMT)
NASA and Rosaviakosmos have selected a veteran astronaut and cosmonaut to serve as the next long-duration crew on the International Space Station. That crew, dubbed Expedition Eight, will consist of NASA astronaut Michael Foale, who will be expedition commander and science officer, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, the Soyuz commander and station flight engineer. Foale is best known for spending over four months on the Russian space station Mir, surviving a collision with a cargo spacecraft that depressurized the station's Spektr module. Foale has also flown on four other shuttle missions, including the STS-103 Hubble repair mission in late 1999. Kaleri has spent 416 days in space on three missions to Mir, including the final, privately-supported, Mir expedition in 2000. The two are scheduled to launch to the station on October 18 on the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft along with ESA astronaut Pedro Duque; the spacecraft will dock with the station two days later. Duque will return to Earth on October 28 along with the current ISS Expedition Seven crew of Yuri Malenchenko and Ed Lu. Foale and Kaleri will spend approximately six months on the station. NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev will be the backups for Expedition Eight.

Related Links:

•  NASA press release
•  Houston Chronicle article
•  Orlando Sentinel article
•  ARRL article