KOROLYOV, Moscow Region/BAIKONUR. April 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Preparations for the launch of the seventh main expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) are progressing as planned at the Baikonur cosmodrome, the press service of the Flight Control Center said on Friday.
"The launch of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket that is to orbit the Soyuz-TMA-2 spacecraft is scheduled for 7:54 a.m. Moscow time (0354 GMT) on Saturday. Specialists say that cosmodrome crews are conducting all preparations in strict accordance with the schedule, and no claims have been made," a press service official told Interfax-Military News Agency.
According to cosmodome leaders, a series of additional measures have been taken during the pre-launch preparations in order to ensure flight security and reliability of the launch.
The expedition is made up of Russia's Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Edward Lu. The Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft that will take them to orbit is distinguished for new equipment of the control system. The control board in the spacecraft cabin is made on a new elemental basis and its design takes into account ergonomics. Moreover, extra computers have been integrated into the control system.
A U.S. space shuttle was originally planned to deliver the seventh expedition to the ISS, but shuttle launches were suspended after the Columbia shuttle disaster. Before the reasons for the disaster are established, ISS crews will consist of two people in order to save the station's resources. The so-called third seat on Soyuz will house a cargo container loaded with U.S. and Russian cargoes.
The new expedition will mostly deal with servicing the station, however the cosmonauts will also perform research experiments. In particular, they will go on with the Plasma Crystal experiment and hold a series of medical experiments that are extremely important for future flights to Mars. The plan of the expedition does not include spacewalks, though the cosmonauts are ready and able to work in the outer space even though they have no third person to help them from inside the station.
The expedition will stay in orbit for about six months and return to Earth in October this year.
Malenchenko and Lu will replace the sixth expedition to the ISS - Americans Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox and Russian Nikolai Budarin. The latter turns 50 on April 29. The new shift of cosmonauts will bring a birthday present for their colleague to orbit. During the intermediary period that will last for about a week the cosmonauts will have a very tough schedule. They are to accept the station and equipment and conduct a series of biotechnological experiments before the sixth expedition's departure.