SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Expedition 14 to Launch Sunday; Station Grows in Size*

Preparations are continuing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of the Expedition 14 crew. Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are scheduled to launch atop a Soyuz rocket on Sept. 18 at 12:09 a.m. EDT and arrive at the station at 1:24 a.m. Sept. 20. The duo will replace Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, who are wrapping up a six-month stay on the station. European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter will stay on the station and join Expedition 14.

Flying to the station with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will be American Anousheh Ansari, the first female spaceflight participant to visit the orbiting laboratory. She is flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Meanwhile in orbit, a new truss segment and solar arrays were added to Expedition 14’s future home. The visiting STS-115 crew attached the P3/P4 truss integrated truss segment on Tuesday and unfurled the solar arrays on Thursday.

STS-115 is the first construction mission to visit the station since late 2002. STS-116 is the next construction mission and it is scheduled to visit the station and Expedition 14 as early as December.

For the latest information on STS-115, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

+ Expedition 13 Briefing Materials, August 22, 2006 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition13/exp13_brief_082206.html + Expedition 14 Preflight Briefing Materials, August 22, 2006 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition14/exp14_preflight_brief_082206.html + Next station assembly mission -- 12A http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_assembly_12a.html + Previous station assembly mission -- ULF 1.1 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_assembly_ulf1_1.html + Read more about Expedition 13 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition13/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