Vittori Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male, Married, three children. Born in Viterbo, Italy. Italian Air Force Italian Air Force

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 17 - 1998. Active Entered space service: 27 August 1998. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 19.78 days.

NAME: Roberto Vittori

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Viterbo, Italy, 15 October 1964.

EDUCATION: Vittori graduated from the Italian Airforce Academy in 1989. Between 1989 and 1990 he completed his basic training with the U.S. Air Force at Reese A.F.B., TX, USA. On 15 December 1995 he graduated from the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School, and was recognized with the "Honor Student Award" for class 108. Between 1996 and 1997 he attended the Accident Prevention course (Guidonia A.F.B., Italy) and Accident Investigation course (Kirtland A.F.B., NM, USA).

FAMILY: Married, two children.

RECREATIONAL INTERESTS: Jogging, playing soccer, reading.

EXPERIENCE: With the Italian Air Force, he acquired from 1991 to 1994 an operational background flying Tornado GR1, qualified for day/night air-to-air refueling as well as formation leader.

In 1995, he was employed in the Euro Fighter 2000 programme, as project pilot for the Test Centre of the Italian Air Force and in 1996, he worked in the Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) Project for the development of a new missile to be used with the EF2000.

In parallel he was teaching aerodynamics in the Italian Air Force's Accident Investigation course.

Vittori has logged 1500 flying hours on over 40 different types of aircrafts. His flying experience also includes gliders and helicopters.

Selected by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), in cooperation with ESA, Roberto Vittori joined the European Astronaut Corps and entered the Mission Specialist Class at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA, in August 1998.

Roberto Vittori is one of a number of astronauts from European national space programmes who were being integrated into ESA's single European astronaut corps. ESA astronauts would be involved in the assembly and on-board operations of the International Space Station, a multinational programme that was to place a permanently inhabited facility in Earth orbit.

MILITARY BACKGROUND Active duty, major in Italian Air Force.

• 25 April 2002 Flight: ISS EP-3. Flight Up: Soyuz TM-34. Flight Back: Soyuz TM-33. Flight Time: 9.89 days.

• 15 April 2005 Flight: ISS EP-8. Flight Up: Soyuz TMA-6. Flight Back: Soyuz TMA-5. Flight Time: 9.89 days.

19 July 1985 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 17 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Of 25 Americans, eight pilots and 17 mission specialists.

Commander Mike Bloomfield, Pilot Steve Frick and Flight Engineer Ellen Ochoa activated one of three hydraulic power units on Atlantis and tested all of the shuttle's aerosurfaces to ensure that Atlantis will have full controllability during its high-speed return to Earth Friday. Bloomfield and Frick then test-fired Atlantis' steering jets, which were declared ready to support entry and landing.

Bloomfield, Frick and Ochoa joined crewmates Rex Walheim, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steve Smith to stow all of the equipment they have used over the past 10 days and parked the shuttle's KU-band dish antenna in preparation for the closing of Atlantis' cargo bay doors early Friday morning.

Atlantis has two landing opportunities at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday. The first begins with the firing of Atlantis' braking rockets at 10:20 a.m. Central time, enabling the shuttle to drop out of orbit for its hour-long descent back to Earth and a touchdown on the 3-mile long Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC at 11:26 a.m. Central time. In the unlikely event weather prevents a landing on the first opportunity, a second opportunity is available for a Florida landing, beginning with the deorbit burn of the orbital maneuvering system engines on Atlantis at 11:59 a.m. Central time, resulting in a landing at KSC at 1:03 p.m. Central time.

The weather forecast calls for very favorable conditions for landing at the Florida spaceport Friday, with only scattered clouds and light winds expected. As a result, the backup landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base was not called up for support Friday. Atlantis has enough consumables to stay in orbit, if necessary, until Monday.

Meanwhile, on board the ISS, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch spent a relatively quiet day in the wake of a week of joint operations with Atlantis' crew to install and activate the S-Zero (S0) truss and the Mobile Transporter railcar on the complex. Both of the new components continue to be checked out and are said to be in excellent shape.

Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch will spend part of the day Friday deactivating some of the ISS systems as they prepare to board their Soyuz return vehicle early Saturday for a brief flyover from its current docking location at the nadir port of the Zarya module to the Pirs Docking compartment. The relocation of the Soyuz, which is expected to take about 35 minutes, will begin with undocking Saturday at 4:02 a.m. Central time (902 GMT). Coverage of the operation on NASA Television begins at 3 a.m. Central time (800 GMT).

The movement of the Soyuz 3 vehicle from Zarya to Pirs opens the Zarya port for the arrival of a new Soyuz 4 craft on April 27 by a three-man "taxi" crew comprised of Commander Yuri Gidzenko, formerly of the Expedition One crew, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency and South African spaceflight participant Mark Shuttleworth. They will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 25 and will spend about a week in joint operations with the Expedition Four crew before departing from Pirs in the Soyuz 3 craft on the night of May 4.

The crew of Atlantis was scheduled to begin a scheduled eight-hour sleep period at 6:14 p.m. today, and will be awakened just after 2 a.m. Friday to prepare for entry and landing. All shuttle and ISS systems are operating normally.

If Atlantis lands on Friday, the STS-110 astronauts will return home to Ellington Field in Houston near the Johnson Space Center at around 1 p.m. Central time Saturday.

Commander Mike Bloomfield eased Atlantis to a textbook landing on runway 3-3 at the Florida spaceport at 11:27 a.m. Central time under clear skies and light winds. Bloomfield, Pilot Steve Frick and Mission Specialists Rex Walheim, Ellen Ochoa, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steve Smith completed an 11-day flight in which four spacewalks were conducted to deliver and activate the new S-Zero (S0) girder to the ISS, which will serve as the centerpiece for a truss that will eventually span the length of a football field. Solar arrays will be mounted on the truss as well as new station modules. The S-Zero component will also serve as a switching station for electricity from the station's solar arrays to ISS elements. In addition, the truss is a base for the first rail system in space through the use of its Mobile Transporter and the upcoming Mobile Base System to be delivered to the ISS in June on which the station's robotic arm will be affixed to move up and down the length of the outpost.

The shuttle crewmembers were scheduled to depart Atlantis about an hour after landing to be driven back to the crew quarters at KSC for medical tests and reunions with their families.

The STS-110 astronauts will return home to Hangar 990 at Ellington Field in Houston near the Johnson Space Center at around 1 p.m. Central time Saturday for a welcome home ceremony. The public is invited to attend.

Meanwhile, aboard the ISS, Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch spent the day configuring station systems for the temporary closure of the complex early Saturday in advance of a short departure in their Soyuz return vehicle and a relocation of the craft to another docking port.

Onufrienko, Walz and Bursch will board their Soyuz return vehicle early Saturday for a brief flyover from its current docking location at the nadir port of the Zarya module to the Pirs Docking compartment. The relocation of the Soyuz, which is expected to take about 35 minutes, will begin with undocking Saturday at 4:02 a.m. Central time (902 GMT). Coverage of the operation on NASA Television begins at 3 a.m. Central time (800 GMT).

The movement of the Soyuz 3 vehicle from Zarya to Pirs opens the Zarya port for the arrival of a new Soyuz 4 craft on April 27 by a three-man "taxi" crew comprised of Commander Yuri Gidzenko, who served on the first resident crew of the ISS, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency and South African spaceflight participant Mark Shuttleworth. They will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 25 and will spend about a week in joint operations with the Expedition Four crew before departing from Pirs in the Soyuz 3 craft on the night of May 4.

Major systems aboard the ISS continue to function well as the station orbits at an average altitude of about 247 statute miles.

Atlantis has two landing opportunities at KSC today. The first begins with the firing of Atlantis' braking rockets at 10:20 a.m. and a landing at 11:26 a.m. CDT. A second opportunity for a Florida landing would see the deorbit burn at 11:59 a.m. and a landing at KSC at 1:03 p.m. CDT. Forecasts call for favorable weather for landing in Florida Friday, with only scattered clouds expected. The backup-landing site at California's Edwards Air Force Base was not called up today. Atlantis has enough consumables to stay in orbit until Monday.

The crew of Atlantis - Commander Mike Bloomfield, Pilot Steve Frick, and Mission Specialists Ellen Ochoa, Rex Walheim, Lee Morin, Jerry Ross and Steve Smith - was awakened at 2:21 a.m. by the song "Message in a Bottle," performed by The Police.

Meanwhile, aboard the ISS, Expedition 4 Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch monitored station systems this morning during another reboost of the orbiting laboratory. The Progress cargo ship's jets were fired to raise the station's altitude a little more than half a mile. During the STS-110 mission, Atlantis did three station reboosts, totaling about six miles.

The station crew also will deactivate some ISS systems today to prepare to board the Soyuz return vehicle early Saturday for its 35-minute move from the nadir port of the Zarya module to the Pirs Docking compartment. The relocation of the Soyuz will begin with undocking Saturday at 4:02 a.m. Coverage on NASA Television begins at 3 a.m.

The move frees the Zarya port for the arrival of a new Soyuz 4 craft on April 27 with a three-man "taxi" crew comprised of Commander Yuri Gidzenko, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency and South African spaceflight participant Mark Shuttleworth. They will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 25 and will spend about a week aboard the station before departing in the Soyuz 3 craft May 4.

Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch undocked the Soyuz 3 capsule from the nadir docking port of the Zarya module of the ISS at 4:16 a.m. Central time (916 GMT) and flew a short distance down the station for a redocking to the Pirs Docking Compartment at 4:37 a.m. Central time (937 GMT) over Central Asia. The station's key systems had been deactivated for the brief flight in the unlikely event Onufrienko could not redock the vehicle.

The Zarya docking port is now free for the arrival of the new Soyuz 4 capsule next Saturday, and a three-man "taxi" crew, Commander Yuri Gidzenko, who was a member of the first resident crew of the ISS, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency and South African space flight participant Mark Shuttleworth. They are scheduled to be launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:26 a.m. Central time (626 GMT) and will link up to the ISS on April 27 at around 3 a.m. Central time (800 GMT).

The "taxi" crew will spend almost eight days aboard the ISS conducting experiments. A fresh Soyuz is delivered to the station every six months as an assured means of bringing the resident crewmembers home if an emergency forces them to leave the complex.

The Soyuz relocation comes one day after the shuttle Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center to wrap up an 11-day flight which featured four spacewalks to install and activate the 13-ton S-Zero (S0) truss to the ISS. The truss, which is the major backbone for future station construction, is functioning perfectly.

Atlantis' seven astronauts will return from the Kennedy Space Center to Hangar 990 at Ellington Field in Houston near the Johnson Space Center this afternoon for a welcome home ceremony at around 1 p.m. Central time. The public is invited to attend.

All systems aboard the ISS continue to function well as the station orbits at an average altitude of about 245 statute miles.

Russian Commander Yuri Gidzenko, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth rocketed away from the Central Asian launch site at 1:26:38 a.m. Central time (626:38 GMT) in their Soyuz TM-34 craft. Less than nine minutes later, with the Soyuz solar arrays and navigational antennas successfully deployed, they had reached orbit to begin a two-day chase to reach the ISS early Saturday. At the time of launch, the ISS was flying over Iraq at an altitude of 244 statute miles. The Expedition Four crew on board the station had just awakened at the time the Soyuz began its journey.

Gidzenko, who is making his third flight into space, is the first former resident of the ISS to return to the complex, having been a member of the Expedition One crew, the first crew to live aboard the station. Gidzenko first arrived at the ISS in November 2000. Vittori, who is a professional astronaut, is making his first spaceflight, traveling to the ISS under a contract between the Italian Space Agency and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Shuttleworth is a South African Internet entrepreneur flying under contract with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency as well on his first mission.

The three crewmembers will dock to the Zarya module of the ISS on Saturday at 2:57 a.m. Central time (757 GMT). That docking port was freed up last Saturday when Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch relocated the Soyuz vehicle currently at the ISS from Zarya to the Pirs Docking Compartment.

Gidzenko, Vittori and Shuttleworth will spend almost eight days on the station, conducting experiments and educational activities. They will depart the ISS on the evening of May 4, U.S. time, in the Soyuz currently docked to the station, and will land a few hours later on the Kazakh steppes.

All systems aboard the ISS continue to function well as the station orbits at an average altitude of about 245 statute miles.

Two days after their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian Commander Yuri Gidzenko, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth docked their Soyuz TM-34 craft to the nadir docking port of the Zarya module of the ISS at 2:56 a.m. Central time (756 GMT) as the two vehicles flew over Central Asia.

On board the ISS, Expedition Four Flight Engineer Dan Bursch, a Navy Captain, maintained a tradition by ringing the ship's bell in the Unity module to mark the arrival of new visitors. ISS Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineer Carl Walz monitored the docking along side Bursch.

Parked nearby at the Pirs Docking Compartment was the Soyuz TM-33 craft, which was brought to the ISS by another crew last fall. Gidzenko, Vittori and Shuttleworth will ride home to a landing on the Kazakh steppes in that older Soyuz capsule on May 4, U.S. time (early May 5, Kazakhstan time).

Gidzenko, who is making his third flight into space, is the first former resident of the ISS to return to the complex, having been a member of the Expedition One crew, the first crew to live aboard the station. Gidzenko first arrived at the ISS in November 2000. Vittori, who is a professional astronaut, is making his first spaceflight, traveling to the ISS under a contract between the Italian Space Agency and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Shuttleworth is a South African Internet entrepreneur flying under contract with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency as well on his first mission.

Gidzenko, Vittori and Shuttleworth will spend their visit on the station conducting experiments and educational activities

About an hour and a half after docking, and after leak checks were performed to insure a tight seal between the Soyuz and the ISS, hatches swung open at 4:25 a.m. Central time (925 GMT) and the six crewmembers greeted one another. Congratulations were offered to the two crews from Russian, Italian, European Space Agency and South African officials who watched the linkup from the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow.

All systems aboard the ISS continue to function well as the station orbits at an average altitude of about 245 statute miles.

Russian Commander Yuri Gidzenko, Flight Engineer Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth undocked their Soyuz TM-33 craft from the Pirs Docking Compartment of the ISS at 7:31 p.m. Central time (00:31 GMT May 5) over China after eight days of joint activities with Expedition Four Commander Yury Onufrienko and Flight Engineers Carl Walz and Dan Bursch.

Left behind on the nadir docking port of the Zarya module of the ISS is a new Soyuz TM-34 return craft, in which Gidzenko, Vittori and Shuttleworth were launched on April 25 and which they guided to a docking to the ISS last Saturday. The older Soyuz arrived at the station last October. Fresh Soyuz spacecraft are brought to the station every six months to serve as an emergency return vehicle in the event a problem forces station residents to leave the complex prematurely.

After backing the older Soyuz away from the Pirs docking port, Gidzenko fired the Soyuz' thrusters to begin a separation maneuver away from the station. Later this evening, Gidzenko will conduct a four-minute deorbit burn of the Soyuz engines to begin the capsule's descent back to Earth.

Gidzenko, Vittori and Shuttleworth are scheduled to land on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 10:52 p.m. Central time (352 GMT May 5) to wrap up their mission.

Gidzenko, who is completing his third flight into space, was the first former resident of the ISS to return to the complex, having been a member of the Expedition One crew, the first crew to live aboard the station.

Gidzenko, Vittori and Shuttleworth spent most of their time on the station conducting experiments and educational activities.

All systems aboard the ISS continue to function well as the station orbits at an average altitude of about 245 statute miles.

Commander Leroy Chiao began the effort Feb. 1 and reported Friday that he has completed pre-packing all U.S. hardware identified for return, and that he and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov are working together to do the same for the appropriate Russian hardware. Chiao also completed an inventory of food supplies.

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and Science Officer John Phillips will be on board the Station when Discovery arrives in May, and will work with the STS-114 crew to stow the return items after supplies and equipment being delivered have been transferred. The Expedition 10 crew's pre-packing efforts will help ensure that the limited amount of transfer time available during Discovery's visit is used efficiently.

Scientific research also highlighted the week, with Sharipov conducting three runs with the Russian Plasma-Crystal experiment, while Chiao worked with two student experiments. "Plazmennyi Kristall" is studying how plasma-dust crystals and fluids behave in microgravity when excited by radio waves. Sharipov set up the experiment, installing specimens and pumping the atmosphere out of its vacuum chamber so that telescience specialists on the ground could command its operations. Chiao installed the EarthKAM experiment on a bracket in one of the Station's windows for its final Expedition 10 session. Students at 160 middle schools around the world have snapped more than 900 Earth observation images by remote control so far. Chiao also worked with the Space Experiment Module-Satchel experiment, which contains 11 sample vials, one each from schools around the United States, that are exposed to microgravity for three to six months. This is the first flight of the satchel carrier, which was delivered to the Station by the Progress 16 resupply ship.

Chiao also spent several hours working to restore the Space Integrated GPS/Inertial Navigation System (SIGI) to full functionality. The system, which supplies Global Positioning Satellite navigation information to a Station guidance and navigation computer, was working normally again after Chiao rotated out one of the Destiny Laboratory's systems racks to gain access and update the system's firmware programming.

The crew will have the usual light-duty weekend with cleaning and exercise on tap. Chiao, who is the NASA ISS Science Officer, can also choose from various research activities for his optional Saturday Morning Science session.

Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov also spent much of the latter part of the week stowing tools used during the spacewalk, cleaning and stowing their Russian Orlan spacesuits and reconfiguring the Pirs Docking Compartment airlock. The crew installed antennas that will be used by a new automated European supply craft and released a small Russian technology satellite during the 4-hour, 30-minute spacewalk.

Chiao and Sharipov began preparing the Station for the first visit by a Space Shuttle mission since the Columbia accident. The Shuttle Discovery is targeted for launch on mission STS-114 in a planning window that begins May 15 and ends June 3. The crew began packing gear that will be returned on the Shuttle and they checked out cameras that the upcoming Station crew will use to photograph the Shuttle's heat shield. Chiao conducted some troubleshooting on one of those digital cameras that is experiencing intermittent card reading errors during downloads. Other cameras are available if needed.

The crew also continued work with the Station's Elektron oxygen generation system. The system has operated intermittently over the past few weeks. Additional troubleshooting was conducted this week by Sharipov while Russian technicians continued to study repair options. Multiple alternate sources of oxygen are available and the Elektron problems have not significantly impacted activities.

Chiao and Sharipov participated in a question and answer session with students at the Sheridan Middle School in New Haven, CT Thursday and an amateur radio session with the Science Discovery Center in Denton, Texas.

Two of the Station's Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs) continue to perform well, controlling the Station's orientation. A brief, unusual vibration was detected on one of them, CMG 3, just after the end of the spacewalk on Monday. Engineers are continuing to evaluate the indication. Two additional gyroscopes are not operating. One of them is planned to be repowered during a spacewalk on the upcoming Shuttle mission and another will be replaced at that time. Two gyroscopes are sufficient for control of the current Station, but additional gyroscopes will be needed as assembly resumes and the size of the complex increases.

The next Station crew continued training this week at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips, along with European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori, completed final exams and certification for launch. They will travel to the launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, this weekend and conduct a check of their Soyuz spacecraft on Monday. Vittori will spend eight days on the Station under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. Krikalev and Phillips will spend six months aloft.

On Monday Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov held a news conference with reporters at NASA centers and discussed Station systems, lessons learned from two-man crew operations on the Station and the return of the Space Shuttle to flight. Chiao and Sharipov performed some maintenance work this week as well, including re-pressurizing the Station atmosphere with oxygen from the Progress supply ship's tank. They discharged two carbon dioxide-removing lithium hydroxide canisters that were nearing their expiration dates while ground specialists monitored the Station's environment to gauge the efficiency of the Russian canisters for possible future use.

Flight controllers and engineers are continuing to analyze several spikes in vibration and electrical current that have been noted in one of the Control Moment Gyroscopes. The two functional gyroscopes are operating well and continuing to control the Station's orientation. While the analysis continues, the Station is in an orientation that minimizes demands on the gyroscopes. Remaining in that orientation does not change other Station operations. The ongoing analysis focuses on attempts to correlate the events with activity aboard the Station.

At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips, along with European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Roberto Vittori, who will travel to the Station for eight days under a commercial agreement between Russia and ESA, spent the week reviewing flight plans. They will travel to Kazakhstan Saturday. Their launch on ISS Soyuz 10 is set for 7:46 p.m. CDT Thursday, April 14. They will dock at the Station's Pirs docking compartment at 9:19 p.m. CDT April 16. Vittori will join Chiao and Soyuz Commander Sharipov for the trip back to Earth, departing the Station and landing in Kazakhstan on April 24.

The ISS Soyuz 10 spacecraft carried Station Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Science Officer and Flight Engineer John Phillips to orbit along with European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori.

The Soyuz launched at 7:46 p.m. CDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. At the time, the Station was flying in a northeasterly direction about 230 miles above the South Atlantic Ocean. With Krikalev at the controls, the Soyuz is on course to catch up and dock with the Station at 9:19 p.m. Saturday, April 16.

The hatches between the arriving Soyuz 10 spacecraft and the Station will be opened at about 12:05 a.m. Sunday. Live NASA Television coverage of the docking and hatch opening will begin at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Krikalev and Phillips will stay aboard the Station until October, while Vittori will spend eight days there conducting experiments. The Station residents will open the door for the Space Shuttle Discovery's crew on their STS-114 mission to ISS in May or June.

Expedition 10 Commander and NASA Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov have been doing research and maintaining Station systems since October. With Vittori, they will undock from the Station and return to Earth April 24.

With Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev at the controls, the Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft automatically linked up to the Pirs Docking Compartment at 9:20 p.m. CDT as the Soyuz and the Station flew over eastern Asia. Within minutes, hooks and latches between the two vehicles joined together to form a tight seal.

Aboard the Soyuz with Krikalev were NASA Expedition 11 Flight Engineer and Science Officer John Phillips and European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy.

Hatches between the Soyuz and the Station were opened at 11:45 p.m. Saturday. The two crews greeted one another with handshakes and hugs. The first activity scheduled for the five crewmembers was a safety briefing to familiarize the newly arrived trio with emergency escape procedures.

Krikalev and Phillips will remain on board the Station until October. Vittori will return to Earth next week after eight days of scientific experiments on the complex under a commercial agreement between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The trio launched at dawn Friday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for their two-day journey to the outpost.

Aboard the Station at the time of docking were Expedition 10 Commander and NASA Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, who are wrapping up their six-month mission and who will ride home on their Soyuz TMA-5 capsule with Vittori on April 25 for a pre-dawn landing in central Kazakhstan. Saturday marked the 185th day in space for Chiao and Sharipov and their 183rd day on the Station.

Krikalev and Phillips will relocate the new Soyuz from Pirs to the Zarya module docking port this summer.

On hand for the docking activities at the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow were NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Station and Space Shuttle Programs Michael Kostelnik, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Craig Steidle and ISS Program Manager William Gerstenmaier along with Russian and European space officials.

On Sunday before they begin an extended sleep period, the new crew will transfer their custom-made Soyuz seatliners as well as cargo carried aloft on the Soyuz for the complex. Later in the day, initial briefings on the handover from the current residents to their replacements will be conducted and the new Soyuz' systems will be deactivated.

Over the next week, Krikalev and Phillips will familiarize themselves with Station systems and stowed equipment, conduct robotics training with the Canadarm2 robot arm, and receive detailed briefings on scientific payloads. Phillips and Chiao will also continue the maintenance and repair work on the cooling systems in the U.S. airlock Quest for the resumption of spacewalk capability from the Station this summer.

In addition, they will pack discarded gear and equipment for return to Earth on the Raffaello cargo module that will be brought to the Station on the Space Shuttle's Return to Flight mission, STS-114, targeted to arrive next month on the Shuttle Discovery.

The five crewmembers aboard the Station had a busy week of briefings for the new crew, preparations for the old crew's departure and preparations for the arrival of the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-114, the Shuttle's Return to Flight targeted for next month.

The 11th Station crew, Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips, docked to the Station at 9:20 p.m. CDT Saturday. With them was European Space Agency (ESA) Astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy. He is spending almost eight days on the Station working through 22 scientific experiments and activities.

Vittori is to return to Earth on Sunday with the two members of the Expedition 10 crew, Commander and NASA ISS Science Officer Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov. They are scheduled to leave the Station at 1:41 p.m. CDT Sunday and to land in Kazakhstan at 5:08 p.m. Chiao and Sharipov will then travel to Kustanai, Kazakhstan, and on to Star City, Russia, about eight hours after their return to Earth, where they will be reunited with family.

The landing is about two hours before local sunrise. The area weather forecast calls for a chance of rain with near-freezing temperatures.

Sharipov will undock the Soyuz manually as a precautionary measure to conserve energy. Although the Soyuz' backup battery charge is thought to be adequate if it were required for the undocking, that battery has shown signs of a reduced charge since the Soyuz was relocated among Station docking ports in November 2004. The primary battery is healthy.

The manual undocking is a practiced backup procedure for Soyuz operations, and is being done to ensure adequate backup battery power is available if it were needed for deorbit and landing. The manual procedures allow Sharipov to reduce the amount of time the Soyuz is on internal power before undocking. The undocking is routinely performed automatically by the onboard computer. Landing will occur as is normal on the second orbit after undocking.

Extensive briefings by Chiao and Sharipov helped settle Krikalev, who was a member of the first station crew launched in late 2000, and Phillips, who visited the Station as a Shuttle crewmember in April 2001, in their new home. They also trained on the Canadarm2, the Station's robotic arm, and were briefed on science activities as well as locations of equipment and supplies.

On Monday, Phillips trained with the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity experiment. He conducted his first experiment with the equipment on Thursday.

Tuesday the crew activated the Microgravity Science Glovebox and later in the week certified its readiness for use. Wednesday's focus was the U.S. airlock Quest, with crewmembers flushing a cooling system and replacing a service and cooling umbilical, restoring the airlock to usable condition. Chiao and Phillips were back in the airlock on Thursday, resizing spacesuits to make sure the right equipment will remain aboard the Station after Discovery's departure from its future mission.

A three-hour Soyuz descent training session kept Chiao, Sharipov and Vittori busy on Friday. All five crewmembers later participated in a change of command ceremony that formally passed command of the outpost from Chiao to Krikalev.

After a flawless descent by the ISS Soyuz 9 spacecraft, Chiao, Sharipov and Vittori landed on target in north-central Kazakhstan, about 53 miles (85 kilometers) northeast of Arkalyk, at 5:08 p.m. CDT. Recovery forces arrived at the site within minutes of the touchdown. The area was saturated from recent rains and melting winter snow, so the first members of the recovery team to reach the scene decided to fly the crew to Arkalyk to meet with remaining members of the recovery team.

The crew's friends and families are expected to greet them upon their arrival at Star City, Russia, about eight hours after landing. Chiao and Sharipov will remain in Star City for a few weeks of post-flight debriefings and medical exams before returning to Houston in mid-May.

Chiao and Sharipov spent 192 days, 19 hours and 2 minutes in space. They launched on Oct. 13, on the same Soyuz spacecraft that brought them home. For six months, the pair maintained systems and conducted scientific research onboard the Station.

Among their accomplishments on the Station was replacing critical hardware in the Joint Quest Airlock, repairing U.S. spacesuits, submitting a scientific research paper on ultrasound use in space and voting for the first time in an American Presidential election from space. They completed two spacewalks, including experiment installation and tasks that prepared the Station for the arrival of a new European cargo ship next year.

Aboard the Station, the Expedition 11 crew, Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA Station Science Officer John Phillips, are beginning a six-month mission that will include the resumption of Space Shuttle flights and two spacewalks from the Station. Expedition 11 is scheduled to return to Earth on Oct. 7, 2005.

Krikalev and Phillips will have light duty for the next three days as they rest after completing a busy handover period. For the past week, they have been learning about Station operations from the two men who called the ship home since October. Chiao and Sharipov briefed Krikalev and Phillips on day-to-day operations and gave them hands-on opportunities at Station maintenance: Chiao and Phillips restored functionality of the Quest for future spacewalks and practiced operating the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer John Phillips were given time each day to orient themselves with the Station and where items are stowed. They also completed an emergency evacuation drill, a standard procedure for all new crews. The practice helps them learn the location of emergency equipment and departure routes.

Both crewmembers kept busy with Station maintenance and upkeep. Krikalev conducted troubleshooting of the Russian Elektron oxygen generation system and the condensate removal system. The Elektron remains off-line, with oxygen being supplied from tanks in the Progress cargo ship, one of several oxygen supplies available. The next infusion of oxygen into the Station's atmosphere from Progress will take place early next week.

Krikalev also completed the transfer of water from the Progress cargo ship to storage tanks in the Zvezda module. Phillips updated the Station's computer system with software specifically designed for this crew's mission. He also installed a remote-controlled camera at the Destiny Lab's Earth-facing window for a week's worth of imagery from the EarthKAM experiment, which enables middle-school students around the world to take photos of selected sites on Earth. Thousands of students from more than 100 schools took part in this week's operations.

Early today Krikalev and Phillips were informed that NASA managers rescheduled the launch of the Shuttle Discovery to no earlier than July 13 on the STS-114 Return to Flight mission. The additional time is needed to complete a thorough analysis of the potential risks posed by several areas of possible ice debris from the Shuttle's external fuel tank as well as an evaluation of several concerns found during recent launch preparations.

Today the crewmembers practiced with digital cameras the photographs they will take of Discovery as it approaches the Station for docking on the third day of the STS-114 mission. Phillips and Krikalev will have about 93 seconds of time available to use the cameras and high-power lenses to capture two sets of images of the Shuttle's heat shield. Discovery Commander Eileen Collins will guide the Shuttle through a slow back flip to allow the Station crew to image both the top and bottom of the vehicle. The images will be quickly transmitted to the ground for analysis.

Krikalev and Phillips performed another step in preparations for the Shuttle visit this week as they cleared cargo from a hatch in the Unity module where a cargo container will be attached during that mission. The Station crew also conferred via space to ground communications with Discovery's crew about the planned transfer and stowing of supplies.

Meanwhile, Expedition 10 Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, along with European Space Agency Astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy, arrived at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia Monday morning. They rested, reunited with their families and went through medical tests following their landing in a Soyuz spacecraft. Chiao and Sharipov are expected to return to Houston in mid-May.