spacetoday.net: ESA astronaut to make long-term ISS stay

Posted: Sat, Apr 30, 2005, 11:22 AM ET (1522 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

European and Russian officials announced this week that ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter will spend six months on the ISS starting later this year, making him the first astronaut from other than NASA or Roskosmos to perform a long-duration stay on the station. Reiter will arrive on the station on shuttle mission STS-121, the second post-Columbia mission. He will remain on the station for six months, with his stay overlapping with the Expedition 11 crew currently on the station and the Expedition 12 crew scheduled to arrive this fall. STS-121 was scheduled to launch in July, but that mission will be delayed given Friday's decision by NASA to push back the preceding mission, STS-114, from May to July. This will not be Reiter's first long-duration space mission: he spent six months on the Mir space station in 1995.