Article Posted on : - Oct 13, 2008

Mission will last for six months, but US game maker Garriott will return after nine days

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (BNS): A new crew that will live and work aboard the International Space Station rocketed into orbit early Sunday aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.

US astronaut E Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and Richard Garriott, a US computer game developer, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2.01 am CDT.

Fincke, the only American to launch twice on Soyuz, will serve as commander of the six-month Expedition 18 mission. The mission’s main focus will be to prepare the station to house six crewmembers on long-duration missions.

The Expedition 18 crew is scheduled to arrive at the station Tuesday, with docking to the Zarya module scheduled for 3.33 am.

After the hatches are opened, Expedition 17 Commander Sergey Volkov and spaceflight participant Garriott will become the first children of previous space fliers to greet each other in orbit. Garriott is the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who was a member of the Skylab-3 crew in 1973. Volkov is the son of veteran cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, who flew three Soyuz missions.

Garriott will spend nine days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency. He will return to Earth on October 23 with Volkov and Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, who have worked aboard the station since April 10.

In November NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus will replace expedition 17 Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff, who arrived at the station in June. Space shuttle Endeavour will ferry Magnus to the station and return Chamitoff to Earth.

Endeavour's November STS-126 mission also will deliver equipment to the station necessary for supporting a six-member crew, including a water recycling system, sleeping quarters, a new kitchen, a second toilet, and an advanced exercise device.

Although they will be in space on the US Election Day, Chamitoff and Fincke have arranged for the chance to cast their ballots from the station.