New ISS Crew Is Preparing For Life Aboard The Space Station

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9 years ago

MessageToEagle.com – Expedition 46/47 prime crew members Timothy Kopra of NASA, Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Timothy Peake of the European Space Agency and their backups, Kate Rubins of NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) conducted final qualification training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia Nov. 19 and 20.

Soyuz TMA-19M crew portrait: Crew: Tim Peake, ESA, Yuri Malenchenko, Roscosmos, Tim Kopra, NASA

Kopra, Malenchenko and Peake are scheduled to launch Dec. 15, Kazakh time, in the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.

The International Space Station is a microgravity laboratory in which an international crew of six people live and work while traveling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth every 90 minutes.

Visitors to the International Space Station by Country
Credits: NASA

The space station has been continuously occupied since November 2000. In that time, more than 200 people from 15 countries have visited.

Crew members spend about 35 hours each week conducting research in many disciplines to advance scientific knowledge in Earth, space, physical, and biological sciences for the benefit of people living on our home planet.

ISS is larger than a six-bedroom house, it weighs almost one million pounds (approximately 925,000 pounds). That’s the equivalent of more than 320 automobiles. The ISS measures 357 feet end-to-end. That’s equivalent to the length of a football field including the end zones (well, almost – a football field is 360 feet). Credits: NASA

Image above: The International Space Station’s length and width is about the size of a football field.
Credits: NASA

The station facilitates the growth of a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit, operating as a national laboratory for scientific research and facilitating the development of U.S. commercial cargo and commercial crew space transportation capabilities.

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source: NASA