SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468
*Expedition 14 Preps for Trip Home*
Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi are making preparations for their trip home. Members of both Expedition 14 and Expedition 15 are continuing crew rotation and handover activities, as well as prepacking hardware for return and disposal in the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft.
The returning crew is scheduled to leave the station early Saturday and will land northeast of Arkalyk, which is southeast of the usual landing site in Kazakhstan. The landing was delayed a day and moved farther south because wet ground at the initial site precluded helicopter operations there.
Flight Engineer Sunita Williams is now a member of Expedition 15 and is scheduled to return with the STS-118 shuttle crew.
+ Read more about Expedition 15 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html + Read more about Expedition 14 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/index.html + View Crew's Daily Timelines http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html