Russian Agency Approves New International Space Station Crew

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 28 August: Head of the Federal Aerospace Agency (Roskosmos) Anatoliy Perminov today approved the composition of the main and stand-by crews of the 10th main expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) and a short-term mission, ITAR- TASS has learnt from Roskosmos spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko. “The head of the Federal Aerospace Agency today endorsed the candidatures which were approved yesterday by an interdepartmental commission,” he said.

In October, Russian citizen Salizhan Sharipov will pay a long visit to the ISS together with NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao. Russian Space Troops Col Yuriy Shargin will fly with them on a 10-day mission, and will return to Earth with Russia’s Gennadiy Padalka and US astronaut Michael Fink.

According to Space Troops Commander Lt-Gen Vladimir Popovkin, “an interesting programme which will be of use to the Space Troops and to the country as a whole” has been prepared for Shargin, the only representative of the Space Troops among the cosmonauts.

Valeriy Tokarev and William McArtur will be in the stand-by crew.

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