HTTP:: ESA Astronaut Promoted ISS Commander
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For the first time since it started participating in the International Space Station (ISS) project, the European Space Agency (ESA) has one of its own astronauts as station Commander. On Sunday, Frank de Winne, from Belgium, officially became the leader of Expedition 21, as former Commander Gennady Padalka returned to Earth. The former chief left the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 aircraft accompanied by NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, and space tourist Guy Laliberte, Space reports. “I've always been proud to be European. Europeans, of course, have a big heritage as explorers. It's a big honor for me to be the first European commander of the International Space Station,†de Winne said yesterday in a press conference, from aboard the orbital facility. De Winne, who is 48 years old, is the first astronaut to break the Russian/American “lineage†of space-station commanders. He launched to the lab in May, and is scheduled to return home in November, when his six-mont!
h stay ends. Although he will command the ISS only briefly, the station has a very active schedule ahead. During his “term,†the Russian space agency RosCosmos will deliver the new Mini Research Module 2, and attach it to the station. The segment will serve as an additional airlock and docking bay, and should ease th...
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