EXPEDITION 7

'Expedition 7' was the seventh expedition to the International Space Station.

Contents

Crew

Mission parameters

Mission objectives

Crew

★ Yuri Malenchenko (3), Commander -

★ Ed Lu (3), Flight Engineer -
(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.

Mission parameters

★ 'Perigee:' 384 km

★ 'Apogee:' 396 km

★ 'Inclination:' 51.6°

★ 'Period:' 92 min



★ 'Docked': April 28, 2003 - 05:56:20 UTC

★ 'Undocked': October 27, 2003 - 22:17:09 UTC

★ 'Time Docked': 182 days, 16 h, 20 min, 49 s
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Mission objectives

The seventh crew of the International Space Station lifted off in 'Soyuz TMA-2' from the Russian Space Agency's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 25 2003, at 10:54 p.m. CDT. The Soyuz docked on April 28 2003 and took over command of the ISS. The Expedition Seven crew -- along with European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque -- landed back on Earth on October 27 2003 at Kazakhstan at 9:41 p.m. EST, after undocking from the International Space Station in their Soyuz spacecraft at 6:17 p.m. EST.
From Houston, ISS Spacecraft Communicator Mike Fossum informed Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Science Officer Edward Lu on Wednesday, October 15 of the successful launch of the Long March rocket carrying the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft and Chinese astronaut Yáng Lìwěi. "It's really some exciting news to share. The world's spacefaring nations have been joined by a new member tonight: China."
"First off, we want to congratulate them," Lu replied. "The more people that go into space, the better off we all are. This is a great achievement and good for everyone in the long run."
In Chinese, he later added, "Welcome to space. Have a safe journey."
"I would also like to say I love to have somebody else in space instead of me and Ed," said Malenchenko. "I also know this is great for thousands and thousands of people from China. I congratulate all of them."
Malenchenko and Lu were previously crewmates on the STS-106 shuttle mission and did a spacewalk together during that flight.