NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Astronaut Jeffrey Williams, an Army colonel, and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin have been named the backup crew for International Space Station Expedition 12.

From left are, Expedition 12 backup crewmembers Jeffrey Williams and Mikhail Tyurin. Credit: NASA

The primary Expedition 12 crew of Commander and NASA Science Officer William McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev remains scheduled to launch to the Station Sept. 30. Backup crewmembers are assigned to train alongside the primary crew and are available to conduct the mission in the event a problem were to prevent primary crewmembers from flying.

Williams, a U.S. Military Academy graduate, is the backup Expedition 12 commander and NASA science officer. He previously flew aboard the Space Shuttle on mission STS-101, a Station assembly mission in May 2000. During that flight, he conducted a 6.5-hour spacewalk for Station assembly tasks. Tyurin, a cosmonaut researcher with RSC-Energia, is the backup Expedition 12 flight engineer. He served as a flight engineer during Expedition 3 aboard the Station, a 129-day mission.