News

December 20, 2011.
The State Commission meeting

The State Commission held its meeting at Baikonur launch site where the primary and backup crews for Soyuz TMA-03M were approved and the readiness of the space launcher system was confirmed.

The State Commission approved the proposed composition of the primary and backup crews.

Prime crew: Kononenko Oleg Dmitrievich (Roscosmos, Russia), ISS-30 Flight Engineer, ISS-31 Commander, Soyuz TMA-03M Commander; Donald Pettit (NASA, USA), ISS-30/31 Flight Engineer, Soyuz TMA-03M Flight Engineer; Andre Kuipers (ESA, The Netherlands), ISS-30/31 Flight Engineer, Soyuz TMA-03M Flight Engineer.

Backup crew: Malenchenko Yuri Ivanovich (Roscosmos, Russia)), ISS-30 Flight Engineer, ISS-31 Commander, Soyuz TMA-03M Commander; Sunita Williams (NASA, USA), ISS-30/31 Flight Engineer, Soyuz TMA-03M Flight Engineer; Akihiko Hoshide (JAXA, Japan), ISS-30/31 Flight Engineer, Soyuz TMA-03M Flight Engineer.

The members of the primary and backup crews reported their readiness for the mission.

The launch of the Soyuz-FG integrated launch vehicle with the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft to the ISS Orbital Complex is planned for December 21, 2011 at 05:16 p.m. Moscow time.