New Space Station Crew Members Launch from Kazakhstan

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov
and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa launched to the International
Space Station at 3:12 p.m. CDT Tuesday (2:12 a.m. local time,
Wednesday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov - the Soyuz commander- are scheduled to
dock their spacecraft with their new home at 4:22 p.m. Thursday, June
9. They will join Expedition 28 commander Andrey Borisenko and flight
engineer Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian space agency and Ron
Garan of NASA. The trio has been aboard the station since April 6.

On Thursday, coverage of the Soyuz docking will begin on NASA
Television at 3:30 p.m. NASA TV coverage of the hatches opening and
the welcoming ceremony aboard the orbiting laboratory will begin at 8:30 p.m.

The six-person crew will continue the uninterrupted presence of humans
on the station since Nov. 2, 2000, conducting expanded scientific
research and station maintenance activities. The station residents
also will welcome the crew of the last space shuttle flight,
Atlantis' STS-135 mission, targeted to launch July 8. The shuttle
will deliver critical supplies in the Italian-built Raffaello
multi-purpose logistics module and support spacewalks by Fossum and
Garan to retrieve a failed cooling system pump module, which Atlantis
will return to Earth for analysis.

Garan, Borisenko and Samokutyaev, who launched to the station April 4,
will return to Earth in September. Before departing, Borisenko will
hand over command of the station to Fossum for Expedition 29, which
begins when the Soyuz TMA-21 undocks.

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and
Anatoly Ivanishin will join Fossum, Volkov and Furukawa to complete
the Expedition 29 crew in September.

Fossum will blog about his experiences while aboard the space station.
His first blog entry will be posted later today at:

http://blogs.nasa.gov

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about Expedition 29 and the space station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

To follow Twitter updates from Expedition 28-29 crew member Garan, visit:

http://twitter.com/Astro_Ron

Source:

---