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| | :: Monday, February 09, 2004 :: |
Changing Expeditions
As I reported a while back might happen, the Expedition 9 crew, scheduled to launch in April, has changed once again, due in part to "a psychological incompatibility." The new crew will be astronaut Michael Fincke and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who were training as the back-up crew for Expedition 10. Here's the part I don't understand, though. You've got three crews--the first crew, Bill McArthur and Valery Tokarev, who were the original Exp. 9 crew; the second crew, Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov, who were Exp. 10 and the E9 backup, and Fincke and Padalka, who were the E10 backup. McArthur developed temporary health issues that would preclude long-duration flight. So, he was replaced with Chiao from second crew, who was teamed with first crew cosmonaut Tokarev. Now, because of the problems between Chiao and Tokarev, Fincke and Padalka, both from the third crew, are Expedition 9. Now, plans are for first crew members Tokarev and McArthur (who will not fly on E9 even though he has already recovered from the health issues), to be E10, and for second crew members Chiao and Sharipov to continue as the back-up crew, which could likely make them E11. Part of the benefit here, and NASA's official reason for the switch, is that it allows crews that trained together to stay together. So my question is this, when it became clear that Chiao and Tokarev couldn't work together, and it was decided that the pairs should stay together the way they trained, why didn't Sharipov replace Tokarev on E9, letting Chiao stay, rather than bringing in an entirely different crew? I mean, wouldn't have flying the second crew achieved the same goals as flying the third crew?
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