Nov 17 1997
From The Space Library
Reaffirming their commitment to the international consortium's expensive and increasingly complicated task of constructing Mir's replacement, NASA and the Russian Space Agency announced appointments to the first four crews that would live and work aboard the ISS. NASA chose astronaut William M. Shepherd as the first expedition commander. Russia selected cosmonauts Yuri P. Gidzenko and Sergei K. Krikalev to accompany Shepherd on the first increment crew. The second crew would have a Russian commander, Yury V. Usachev, accompanied by a crew of American astronauts, James S. Voss and Susan J. Helms. Each member of the first two crews possessed significant space experience. Moreover, the selection of the crews represented careful diplomatic choices meant to support the strong, but still strained, space partnership of the United States and Russia.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
