The Expedition
14 mission to the International
Space Station (ISS) marks the first time in the outpost's nearly six years
of manned operations that crewmembers will arrive on a staggered schedule, NASA
officials have said.
Expedition
14 commander Michael
Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail
Tyurin joined flight engineer Thomas
Reiter aboard the station this month for a planned six-month
mission. But Reiter arrived
at the ISS in July with a visiting
shuttle crew and is expected return to Earth in December, when astronaut Sunita
Williams arrives during NASA's planned STS-116
mission.
"It
does add a lot of complexity," Williams said of the complicated crew change in
a NASA interview. "Luckily enough, the complexity falls on the amazing training
team that we have, because they are the ones who really have to shuffle the
cards and figure out how we're going to get the required training for us crewmembers."
Williams,
too, will stay on to join the Expedition 15 mission after Lopez-Alegria and
Tyurin return to Earth in March 2007.
"I think I'm
going to be very lucky to be up there with Expedition 14 first and then with
Expedition 15 later on," Williams told reporters in a preflight interview,
adding that the next ISS crew will include two Russian cosmonauts and she is
not completely fluent in the Russian language. "I feel a little bit intimidated
by the language, so it will be nice to have that initial time onboard."
Reiter, who
made the shift between Expedition
13 and Expedition 14 crews recently, said there is an advantage in swapping
out astronauts in stages.
"In previous years this handover period was always a kind of
critical time because there is a lot to do in these few days when both crews
are still on station," Reiter said in a NASA interview. "The crew that has been
on station needs to explain to the newcomers how all the on board systems are
configured, where things are stowed and so forth. Once they are gone the only,
only place they can ask is the control center."
But
when at least one ISS astronaut remains behind during a crew swap, the new
station residents have nearby source of information to tap as questions arise,
Reiter said.
"I'm totally
ecstatic because of the reality that this is getting a little bit closer,"
Williams said of her spaceflight.
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