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By Clara Moskowitz <\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nAP<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nMay
\n27: Robert Thirsk, Frank De Winne and Roman Romanenko on their way into
\nthe Soyuz capsule at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n\t\t\t#story .gallery_container p.caption{display:none !important;}
\n\t\t\t#story .gallery_container p.strut{color:#000;}<\/p>\nMay
\n27: Robert Thirsk, Frank De Winne and Roman Romanenko on their way into
\nthe Soyuz capsule at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\n- \n
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\nAfter a decade of construction, the International Space Station will
\nfinally live up to its name this week when the first six-person crew
\ntakes up residence with astronauts from five different countries.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe second half of the station’s inaugural six-member crew<\/a> is poised to launch Wednesday at 6:34 a.m. EDT (1034 GMT) aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome.<\/p>\n
They will arrive on Friday to join the first wave of their crew already aboard the station.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Check FOXNews.com at 6:34 a.m. EDT Wednesday for live streaming of the launch.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n
\u2022 Click here to visit FOXNews.com’s Space Center.<\/a><\/p>\n
When the new Soyuz crew joins the three astronauts already waiting on the orbiting laboratory<\/a>
\n, it will be the first time, ever, that all five of the station’s
\ninternational partner agencies \u2014 NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency
\n(Roscosmos), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the
\nEuropean Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) \u2014 will
\nbe represented on orbit at once.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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It’s fitting the cosmic line-up coincided with the station’s first six-person crew.<\/p>\n
“At
\nthis time we will have Canadian, Russian, American, European and
\nJapanese guy on board space station, and I would say it’s [an]
\noutstanding event,” Expedition 20 space station commander Gennady Padalka<\/a>,
\na Russian cosmonaut, said in a preflight interview. “You know that all
\nthese countries have been participating in ISS project for 10 years as
\na minimum, and now it’s pretty high time to have all these astronauts
\nand cosmonauts together working in space.”<\/p>\nConstruction
\non the International Space Station began in 1998, with the first
\nthree-man tenants setting up shop in 2000, once living quarters
\narrived. Today, the station is home to Padalka, American astronaut Michael Barratt<\/a> and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.<\/p>\n\nRelated Stories<\/h1>\n
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On Wednesday, russian cosmonaut Roman
\nRomanenko will command the Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraftthat will launch
\nhimself, Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne of ESA, and Canadian
\nastronaut Robert Thirsk.<\/p>\nThe three spaceflyers are due to dock at the space station Friday morning.<\/p>\n
“When
\nwe all get together at the table we will see that we are people from
\nall corners of the world, working together as a single team to execute
\nour mission program, and I want to believe that we will be able to find
\na common language and that we will all be happy to be part of this
\nfamily,” Romanenko said in a NASA interview.<\/p>\n - Parts of Nearby Galaxy Mysteriously Missing<\/a><\/li>\n
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