spacetoday.net: Russia names crew of next Soyuz flight

Posted: Sat, Aug 28, 2004, 4:19 PM ET (2019 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) officials announced Saturday the composition of the next Soyuz mission to the International Space Station, confirming a decision to fly a professional cosmonaut in the spacecraft's third seat. Anatoly Perminov, head of Roscosmos, approved Saturday the Expedition Ten ISS crew of Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao of Russia and the US, respectively. Perminov also signed off on the selection of rookie cosmonaut Yuri Shargin to fill the third seat on the flight; he will return with the current Expedition Nine crew of Michael Fincke and Gennady Padalka. Shargin became the default choice for the third seat when negotiations between Roscosmos and potential Russian space tourist Sergei Polonsky broke down late last week and Russian officials declared him medically ineligible to fly. In related news, on Friday Roscosmos officials said they planned to add a new module to the Russian segment on the ISS based on the FGB-2, a backup to the existing FGB, or Zarya, module that is at the heart of the station. Once Zarya was successfully launched the fate of the module was unclear; several years ago Boeing and Khrunichev planned a joint venture to put the module to commercial use but later abandoned those plans. The FGB-2 will be configured as a laboratory. Roscosmos said the module will have to be added to the station by 2007, because by that time the American Node 3 module will be added, blocking access to the docking port to be used by FGB-2.