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[b]Station partners agree on Nov. 14 TMA-22 launch[/b] NASA and its international partners have agreed to a tentative launch schedule with crew flights to the International Space Station (ISS) resuming on Nov. 14. The Space Station Control Board, with representation from all partner agencies, set the schedule after hearing the Russian Federal Space Agency’s findings on the Aug. 24 loss of the Progress 44 cargo craft. The dates may be adjusted to reflect minor changes in vehicle processing timelines. "Our top priority is the safety of our crew members," ISS program manager Michael Suffredini said. "The plan approved today, coupled with the conditions on orbit, allow the partnership to support this priority while ensuring astronauts will continue to live and work on the station uninterrupted," "Our Russian colleagues have completed an amazing amount of work in a very short time to determine root cause and develop a recovery plan that allows for a safe return to flight. We'll have a longer period of three-person operations and a shorter than usual handover between the next two crews, but we are confident that the crews will be able to continue valuable research and execute a smooth crew transition," he said. According to the current plan, the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft, carrying NASA's Dan Burbank and Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov, will launch Nov. 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrive at the station on Nov. 16. On Nov. 22, ISS Expedition 29 commander Mike Fossum of NASA, Satoshi Furukawa of Japan and Sergei Volkov of Russia will undock Soyuz TMA-02M and land in the northern Kazakhstan landing zone. Expedition 30 commander Burbank, Ivanishin and Shkaplerov will work as a three-person crew for 36 days. The remainder of the Expedition 30 crew — NASA's Don Pettit, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Europe's Andre Kuipers — will launch to the station aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft on or about Dec. 26 and dock to the station two days later. The exact launch date is under review.
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