One Year Stay By Astronaut And Cosmonaut At The Iss Now Planned In March 2015

The FIRST YEAR-LONG MISSION to the International Space Station may begin in March 2015, following an agreement between ISS partners who have previously sent crews for six months, the Russian space agency director Alexei Krasnov, in charge of manned flights at Roscosmos. The decision was made among the ISS partners at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples, Italy, this week to commence with two-person expedition - with crew members from Roscosmos and NASA. The result of which will determine whether all flights are extended to a year. The typical stay at the ISS is six-months or less. The ISS program is a joint project between five participating space agencies: the American NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Japanese JAXA, the European ESA, and the Canadian CSA. International Space StationA one-year mission on the International Space Station would certainly give scientists the opportunity to observe some of the longer-term effects of spaceflight beyond what crews have reported to date, and prepare for future manned missions to Mars and beyond. NASA Astronaut WhitsonThe NASA astronaut expected to take the first one-year mission is PEGGY WHITSON. She has logged 192-days in space in previous spaceflights in two previous stays at the International Space Station. During her last stay on-orbit, Whitson served as the ISS Commander during a flight increment. There has been no hint as of yet as to the RUSSIAN COSMONAUT to be named to the crew. The first year-long mission will also open an extra two seats to Roscomos and Virginia-based Space Adventures, Ltd. to resume space participatant (so-called 'torusists") to fly to the International Space Station in 2015. AN ANNOUNCEMENT IS EXPECTED IN MOSCOW RELATING TO SPACE PARTICIPANT FLIGHTS OCTOBER 10, 2012.

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