Soyuz TMA-19 Readied for June 16 Launch

The Soyuz TMA-19 new crew expedition to the International Space Station is scheduled to rocket into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on June 16, 2010. The crew comprises Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia and two American NASA astronauts, Douglas Willock and Shannon Walker, [France24] will continue training for the mission the next two weeks in Star City, Russia.

While on board the ISS, the crew will receive the manned spaceships Discovery and Soyuz TMA-01M, and also three Progress cargo spacecraft. The crew is scheduled to walk out into open space on three occasions from the ISS. They will be a part of the ISS Expedition 24 and ISS Expedition 25 crews [Energia]. The trio will join Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson for the Expedition 24 segment.

Part of the current ISS crew, Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi, will end their stay on the International Space Station as Expedition 23 crew members Tuesday, June 1, 2010 aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 return spacecraft, making way for their coming replacements on June 16, [AP].