Expedition 7 Crew Set for Launch to International Space Station

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (Col.,
Russian Air Force) and veteran NASA astronaut Ed Lu have
been named as the primary crew for the planned April 26,
2003, launch of a Russian Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft to the
International Space Station.

Malenchenko and Lu will be called the Expedition 7 crew.
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and NASA astronaut
Michael Foale are the backup crewmembers to Malenchenko and
Lu.

Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai
Budarin and NASA Space Station Science Officer Don Pettit
will return to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-1 craft in May
2003. The three Expedition 6 crewmembers were launched on
November 23, 2002. They have been aboard the Station since
November 25. They were originally scheduled to return in
March aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-114
mission.

Malenchenko commanded a four-month mission aboard the Mir
Space Station in 1994. He participated in the STS-106
mission aboard Atlantis in 2000 to prepare the International
Space Station for permanent human occupancy.

Lu is a veteran of two Shuttle flights. In 1997, he flew
aboard Atlantis to the Mir Space Station on the STS-84
mission to exchange U.S. residents on the Russian complex,
and he joined Malenchenko on STS-106. Malenchenko and Lu
were originally scheduled to fly with Kaleri on Expedition 7
to the Station, which had been scheduled to launch on the
STS-114/ULF-1 (Utilization and Logistics Flight-1) mission
in March. Malenchenko and Lu will continue to operate the
science payloads already on board, as well as maintaining
the Station.