July 30, 1998

Renee Juhans
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1712)

Eileen M. Hawley/Doug Peterson
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

Release: H98-137

Future Space Station Resident Joins Assembly Crew

Veteran cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who will be one of the first full-time residents on board the International Space Station, will join the crew of STS-88, the first American assembly mission.

Krikalev will join Commander Robert D. Cabana, (Col., USMC); Pilot Frederick "Rick" Sturckow (Major, USMC); Mission Specialists Nancy Currie (Major, USA); Jerry Ross (Col., USAF); and Jim Newman, Ph.D., when Endeavour launches in December.

The seven-day mission will be highlighted by the mating of the U.S.-built "Unity" module to the Russian-built "Zarya" control module, which will already be in orbit. Zarya, which was built for NASA by Boeing and the Krunichev Enterprise, is scheduled for launch on a Russian Space Agency Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan this November.

"Sergei's experience with both the U.S. and Russian programs and his familiarity with the Shuttle make him a valuable addition to this crew," said David C. Leestma, director of Flight Crew Operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX.

A cosmonaut since 1985, Krikalev has accumulated more than one year and three months in space as a member of two Mir space station crews. He has flown on board the Shuttle once before, as a member of the STS-60 crew in February 1994. During that nine- day mission, Krikalev operated the Shuttle's robot arm and supported a wide variety of materials science experiments. Throughout the joint Shuttle/Mir program, he actively supported operations, working with ground controllers in Johnson's Mission Control.

For more information on Krikalev and other astronauts, go to:

text-only version of this release