Latest Crew Blasts Off For International Space Station

July 14, 2012

Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck@nasa.gov

Jenny Knotts
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
norma.j.knotts@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-230

LATEST CREW BLASTS OFF FOR INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

WASHINGTON -- Three new crew members are on their way to the
International Space Station. NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams,
Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide blasted off from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:40 p.m. EDT Saturday,
July 14 (8:40 a.m. Baikonur time July 15).

Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide are scheduled to dock their Soyuz
TMA-05M spacecraft to the Rassvet module of the station at 12:52 a.m.
EDT Tuesday, July 17. They will join Expedition 32 Commander Gennady
Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Joe
Acaba of NASA and Sergei Revin of Russia, who have been aboard the
orbiting laboratory since May 17.

The six crew members will work together for about two months. Acaba,
Padalka and Revin are scheduled to return to Earth Sept. 17. Before
they depart, Padalka will hand over command of the station and
Expedition 33 to Williams. She, Malenchenko and Hoshide will return
home in mid-November.

NASA Television will provide live docking coverage beginning at 12:15
a.m., July 17. Hatch opening and welcoming ceremonies will occur
about three hours later.

To follow Twitter updates from the Expedition 32 and 33 astronauts,
visit:

http://twitter.com/Astro_Suni

http://twitter.com/AstroAcaba

http://twitter.com/Aki_Hoshide

For more information about Expedition 32 and the International Space
Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station


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