BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan), November 6 (RIA Novosti) – The crew of a new expedition to the International Space Station said Wednesday they are planning to launch a small Japanese satellite, receive two cargo spacecraft and spacewalk with an Olympic torch during their six-month mission.
A Soyuz rocket carrying Expedition 38, which includes Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA’s Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan, is due to be launched 8:14 a.m. Thursday Moscow time from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome.
During the expedition the crew will receive an American Cygnus cargo spacecraft in December and a Space X commercial spaceship in February or March, Mastracchio said Wednesday.
On Saturday, a spacewalk will take place when Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky will carry the Olympic torch outside the station for about four hours. They will pass the torch over to the departing crew at the ISS, who will bring it back to Russia for the 2014 Olympic Games.
Wakata, who will become the first Japanese to command the station in the last two months of his stay, will launch a small satellite for his country.
