The Soyuz rocket carrying Expedition 14 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA TV

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Expedition 14 crew en-route to space station

The International Space Station’s next crew began the journey to its new home early Monday.

The Soyuz rocket carrying Expedition 14 into space lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:09 a.m. EDT.

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT, are scheduled to arrive at the station at 1:24 a.m. Wednesday. Flying with them is American Anousheh Ansari, who will be the first female spaceflight participant to visit the station. She is flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will replace Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, RV3BS, and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ. European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, will remain on the station and join Expedition 14.

Early Sunday, Expedition 13 concluded a busy week of joint operations with STS-115. The six-member STS-115 crew arrived at the station Sept. 11 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. The STS-115 and Expedition 13 crews installed the P3/P4 truss and its solar arrays on to the station. The shuttle crew then conducted three spacewalks to prepare the addition for operation.

The Progress 21 cargo ship, which is filled with trash and other unneeded items, undocked from the station at 8:28 p.m. Monday and was later commanded to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Expedition 13 Detects Odor on Space Station; Atmosphere Recovery Efforts Under Way

Shortly before 7:30 a.m. EDT, the International Space Station Expedition 13 crew reported an odor in the Zvezda Service Module and manually activated an alarm to begin emergency procedures. The source of the odor was quickly determined to be an apparent leak of potassium hydroxide in the station's Elektron oxygen generation system. Potassium hydroxide, or caustic potash, can be an irritant to crew members, but is not classified as a life-threatening toxin.

The crew donned surgical masks, goggles and gloves for protection from the apparently small leak. Continual measurements of the station atmosphere have indicated levels of any contaminants are very low. The crew also has begun a standard procedure to scrub the air onboard to ensure no potassium hydroxide vapors remain.

Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov reported to Russian flight controllers at about 7:45 a.m. that the situation had stabilized and that he cleaned up a chemical near the Elektron oxygen generation system.

International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini said the incident will have no impact on the upcoming arrival of the Expedition 14 crew on Wednesday.

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