Melissa Motichek<br />Headquarters, Washington July 25, 2003<br />(Phone: 202/358-1272)<br /><br />Eileen Hawley/Doug Peterson<br />Johnson Space Center, Houston<br />(Phone: 281/483-5111)<br /><br />RELEASE: 03-247<br /><br />NEXT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CREW NAMED<br /><br /> Veteran NASA astronaut Michael Foale and seasoned <br />Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri are set to be the eighth <br />crew to live aboard the International Space Station. They're <br />scheduled to begin their mission in October, when they launch <br />into space aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.<br /><br />Foale will serve as the Expedition 8 Commander and <br />NASA/International Space Station Science Officer. Kaleri will <br />be the Soyuz Commander and Space Station Flight Engineer.<br /><br />Their mission is scheduled to begin October 18, when the <br />Russian Soyuz TMA-3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in <br />Kazakhstan. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Pedro <br />Duque, from Spain, will make the outbound trip with Foale and <br />Kaleri as Flight Engineer and return home 10 days later.<br /><br />On October 20, the three will dock their Soyuz to the Station <br />and begin an eight-day transfer process with the Expedition 7 <br />crew, Commander and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Ed <br />Lu, NASA/International Space Station Science Officer.<br /><br />On October 28, Malenchenko, Lu and Duque will return to Earth <br />aboard the Soyuz currently docked to the Station. Malenchenko <br />and Lu have been aboard the Station since late April.<br /><br />The backup crew for Expedition 8 is veteran NASA astronaut <br />Bill McArthur, a retired U.S. Army colonel; Russian veteran <br />cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, a Russian Air Force colonel; and <br />Duque's backup is ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers from the <br />Netherlands.<br /><br />Until the NASA Space Shuttle, with its significant cargo <br />capability, returns to flight, the International Space <br />Station will be staffed with a crew of two instead of three. <br />The smaller crew is big enough to maintain operations on <br />board the Station and small enough to live on a reduced <br />supply of water and other consumables. Foale and Kaleri are <br />scheduled to spend approximately six months on board the <br />Station.<br /><br />Foale is a veteran of five space flights totaling more than <br />178 days in space, including more than four months on the <br />Russian Mir Space Station. Kaleri has flown on three previous <br />missions to the Mir and has logged 416 days in space. <br />October's mission will be Duque's second space flight, <br />following his mission on the Shuttle Discovery (STS-95) in <br />1998.<br /><br />NASA astronaut biographies and information about the Space <br />Station are available on the Internet on the NASA space <br />flight Web site at:<br /><br />www.spaceflight.nasa.gov<br /><br />For information about NASA on the Internet, visit:<br /><br />http://www.nasa.gov