May 29 2009
From The Space Library
Three new ISS residents arrived at the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, bringing the outpost’s full staff to six for the first time in its 10-year history. Also, for the first time, each of the major space station partners had a representative on board: Roman Y. Romanenko and Gennady I. Padalka of Russia, Michael R. Barratt of the United States, Koichi Wakata of JAXA, Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne of ESA, and Robert B. Thirsk of CSA. The first ISS crew had arrived in the year 2000, two years after the launch of the first part of the station. Since that time, the ISS had expanded to nine rooms, including three full-scale laboratories, five sleeping compartments, two toilets, two kitchens, and two mini-gyms, making the station 81 percent complete. The increased crew size also ushered in a new era of station operations that would allow astronauts and cosmonauts to focus on scientific research rather than on the assembly and maintenance of the ISS.
Marcia Dunn, “Space Station Crew Finally at Full Staff of 6,” Agence France-Presse, 30 May 2009; Todd Halvorson, “At Space Station, the House Is Packed,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 1 June 2009.
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