NASA astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin have been named as the 14th crew of the International Space Station. Expedition 14 is scheduled to begin this fall.

Lopez-Alegria, a veteran of three space flights, will command Expedition 14 and serve as the NASA station science officer for the six-month mission. He and Tyurin, a veteran station crew member from Expedition 3, are in training to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in September 2006. Tyurin will serve as flight engineer and Soyuz commander.

Williams will join Expedition 14 in progress and serve as a flight engineer, after traveling to the station on space shuttle mission STS-116. This will be Williams's first space flight.

NASA astronaut veteran Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command a U.S. spacecraft, is hanging up her orbital wings to pursue more terrestrial exploits, the spaceflight veteran said Monday.

"It has been wonderful," Collins told SPACE.com of her shuttle flight career. "The number one thing for me now is to spend time with my family."

source: space.com

Expedition 13 Flight Engineer and Science Officer Jeff Williams First ARISS Contact With Bob Jones High School, Madison, Alabama, USA Monday, May 1, 2006

Link: http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.org/