Two Russian
cosmonauts, a spaceflight veteran and a first-time flyer, are just one day away
from rocketing into orbit to begin a six-month mission at the International
Space Station (ISS).
ISS
Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov, both of
Russia's Federal Space Agency, are set to lift off aboard their Soyuz TMA-10
spacecraft at 1:31 p.m. EDT (1731 GMT) on April 7.
"We're old
men, but we're a very young crew," Yurchikhin, a 48-year-old spaceflight
veteran, said in a preflight interview. "It's important to do our job well, and
we are ready."
Riding into
orbit with Yurchikhin and Kotov will be American space tourist Charles
Simonyi, who is reportedly paying about $25 million for his 13-day trek to
the ISS under an agreement between the Federal Space Agency and the
Virginia-based firm Space Adventures.
The two professional
cosmonauts will replace Expedition 14 commander
Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who are
completing their own six-month mission aboard the ISS and will return to Earth
with Simonyi on April 20. NASA
astronaut Sunita Williams, also aboard the space station, will remain onboard
to join the Expedition 15 crew.
NASA
officials said Expedition 15 is the first long-duration ISS crew to include two
Russian cosmonauts since the Expedition 5 mission of 2002.
Cosmonaut
commander
A native of
the Black Sea port city of Batumi, Georgia, Yurchikhin
heeded the call of spaceflight early in life, and lists reading science fiction,
collecting space logos, studying cosmonautics history and promoting space
interest among his hobbies.
"John
Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, [Valentina] Tereshkova, those were my
heroes, the heroes of my time," Yurchikhin said of his youth in a NASA
interview. "I remember the time and I know I wanted to be a cosmonaut since I
was very little...so for me it was not a question to debate whether I wanted to
be a cosmonaut or not."
The allure
of the cosmonaut and astronaut profession lies in its variety, Yurchikhin told SPACE.com,
adding that all spaceflyers must be part pilot, doctor, scientist, diver,
engineer and photographer.
Launching
in April is fortuitous, he added, because the station crew change period
crosses April 12, a space holiday in Russia that commemorates the first human
spaceflight in 1961.
"It's a
good fate for us, because we hope that on our greatest holy day in space, the Cosmonautics
Day ...when Yuri Gagarin had his historic first flight human's first flight in
space, we will be on ISS," Yurchikhin said, adding that NASA's first shuttle
flight also occurred on April 12 in 1981. "It's like, now, a twice holiday for
us."
A
mechanical engineer with a Ph.D in economics, Yurchikhin joined the Russian
Space Corporation (RSC) Energia's cosmonaut corps in 1997 after holding a
series of flight controller and engineering positions that culminated in his
role of lead engineer for the joint Shuttle-Mir Space Station and NASA-Mir
programs. He first flew aboard NASA's space shuttle Atlantis during the 11-day STS-112
mission in October 2002, and is well versed in joint crew operations aboard
the orbital laboratory.
"I very well
understand, when shuttle comes to us, how I work with the shuttle because I
have this experience," said Yurchikhin, who has two daughters with his wife
Larisa. "New for me will be when we close the hatch and continue our flight
like three people, like an expedition. It will be new for everybody."
The
space doctor
For Kotov,
the path to space has been a long one. The 41-year-old Simferopol, Ukraine native
is making his first spaceflight with Expedition 15 despite more than a decade of
cosmonaut training.
"Waiting is
the more challenging part of training," Kotov in a preflight interview.
A colonel
in the Russian Air Force, Kotov was first selected as a cosmonaut candidate by
the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1996, eight years after joining
the facility as a test-doctor to study the effects of spaceflight on the human
body. He and his wife Svetlana have two children.
"When I
started going to medical school, the question arose of what my specialization
would be," Kotov, a certified SCUBA diver, said in a NASA interview. "And I
wanted to become a specialist in space medicine."
Kotov has
filled a number of roles since his cosmonaut selection, including stints as a
Gagarin Center representative at NASA's Johnson Space Center astronaut training
facility in Houston and as chief of the CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) Branch
in the Cosmonaut Office. He has also served as a backup crewmember for the
Expedition 6 and Expedition 13 space station missions.
During Expedition
15, Kotov will serve as Soyuz commander and sit it the center seat of his
crew's TMA-10 spacecraft during launch and ISS rendezvous. But it is science,
including some 50 Russian experiments, and a robust educational program that he
hopes to be a hallmark of the six-month spaceflight.
"I believe
that to fly this [mission] is like the frontier of Earth science," Kotov told
SPACE.com, adding that he hopes the flight piques student interest in space
and spurs their thoughts towards future Moon or Mars flights. "Mankind always
has to have an idea or a goal for the general imagination to move forward."
But first
Kotov must reach space, and he has sought a few pointers from his more
experienced cosmonaut colleagues.
"Each of
the flown cosmonauts I've asked about what to expect [has] said every flight is
different," Kotov said. "As for me, I'm just looking forward to it. I'm ready
to fly."
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