Fact Sheet
A Slimmed-Down Crew
The next crew for the International Space Station lifted off Friday night aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (left) is commander of the Expedition Seven mission, with astronaut Edward Lu serving as flight engineer and science officer. They will arrive at the station on April 28, with the current three-man crew, which has been aboard for five months, returning to Earth May 3. The current crew was supposed to return aboard a space shuttle in early March, with a three-person team taking over. But the loss of space shuttle Columbia forced a switch to the Soyuz capsule and a reduction in crew size. [NASA]
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