Nov. 26, 2012
Josh Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
[email protected]
Jay Bolden
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
[email protected]
Anna Vedishcheva
Russian Federal Space Agency, Moscow
7495-631-84-80
[email protected]
RELEASE: 12-406
NASA, ROSCOSMOS ASSIGN VETERAN CREW TO YEAR-LONG SPACE STATION MISSION
WASHINGTON -- NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and
their international partners have selected two veteran spacefarers
for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station in
2015. This mission will include collecting scientific data important
to future human exploration of our solar system. NASA has selected
Scott Kelly and Roscosmos has chosen Mikhail Kornienko.
Kelly and Kornienko will launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in spring 2015 and will land in
Kazakhstan in spring 2016. Kelly and Kornienko already have a
connection; Kelly was a backup crew member for the station's
Expedition 23/24 crews, where Kornienko served as a flight engineer.
The goal of their yearlong expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory
is to understand better how the human body reacts and adapts to the
harsh environment of space. Data from the 12-month expedition will
help inform current assessments of crew performance and health and
will determine better and validate countermeasures to reduce the
risks associated with future exploration as NASA plans for missions
around the moon, an asteroid and ultimately Mars.
"Congratulations to Scott and Mikhail on their selection for this
important mission," said William Gerstenmaier, associate
administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "Their skills and previous experience
aboard the space station align with the mission's requirements. The
one-year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in
space and will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of
microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond
low-Earth orbit."
"Selection of the candidate for the one year mission was thorough and
difficult due to the number of suitable candidates from the Cosmonaut
corps," said head of Russian Federal Space Agency, Vladimir Popovkin.
"We have chosen the most responsible, skilled and enthusiastic crew
members to expand space exploration, and we have full confidence in
them."
Kelly, a captain in the U.S. Navy, is from Orange, N.J. He has degrees
from the State University of New York Maritime College and the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He served as a pilot on space
shuttle mission STS-103 in 1999, commander on STS-118 in 2007, flight
engineer on the International Space Station Expedition 25 in 2010 and
commander of Expedition 26 in 2011. Kelly has logged more than 180
days in space.
Kornienko is from the Syzran, Kuibyshev region of Russia. He is a
former paratrooper officer and graduated from the Moscow Aviation
Institute as a specialist in airborne systems. He has worked in the
space industry since 1986 when he worked at Rocket and Space
Corporation-Energia as a spacewalk handbook specialist. He was
selected as an Energia test cosmonaut candidate in 1998 and trained
as an International Space Station Expedition 8 backup crew member.
Kornienko served as a flight engineer on the station's Expedition
23/24 crews in 2010 and has logged more than 176 days in space.
During the 12 years of permanent human presence aboard the
International Space Station, scientists and researchers have gained
valuable, and often surprising, data on the effects of microgravity
on bone density, muscle mass, strength, vision and other aspects of
human physiology. This yearlong stay will allow for greater analysis
of these effects and trends.
Kelly and Kornienko will begin a two-year training program in the
United States, Russia and other partner nations starting early next
year.
For Kelly's biographical information, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/SKelly
For Kornienko's biographical information, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/MKornienko
For more information about the Russian Federal Space Agency, visit:
http://www.roscosmos.ru/
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
Join the conversation on Twitter by following the hashtag #ISS. To
learn more about all the ways to Connect and Collaborate with NASA,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/connect
-end-
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Expedition 33 Crew Members|International Space Station|2B Photovoltaic Thermal Control System (PVTCS)|
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P6 Truss Worksite|P6 PVTCS Total Ammonia Mass|2B Photovoltaic Thermal Control System (PVTCS)|
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2B Ammonia Servicer Jumper Reconfiguration|Spacewalkers Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hohide|Flight Engineer Kevin Ford|
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U.S. EVA #20 Tasks|Fluid Quick Disconnect Coupling (FQDC)|Sunita Williams Spacewalk 
that the, um, "slow disconnects" 
rofl
