The small difference of only about a month between the launch of the 29th crew and the 30th crew is due to a delay in the previous launch after the loss of a cargo spacecraft that was launched on the same rocket to the space station in August
The 30th crew members of the International Space Station, Don Pettit, Oleg Kononenko and Andre Kuypers, were launched today (15:16 Israel time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The three took off in their spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-03M and began the two-day journey to the station. The small difference of only about a month between the launch of the 29th crew and the 30th crew is due to a delay in the previous launch after the loss of a cargo spacecraft that was launched on the same rocket as the space station in August.
They are expected to arrive on Friday at 17:22 Israel time. Team 30 Commander Dan Burbanko and flight engineers Anton Shkapelrov and Anatoly Ivanishin will precede them at the station when the gates between the Soyuz and the station open about two hours later.
Pettit, Kononenko and Kuypers are scheduled to live and work on the space station until May. They will become the 31st crew members under Kononenko's command when Boberbank, Shepkelrov and Ivanishin depart the station in their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft in March.
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In my opinion it's a terrible waste of money - I strongly support manned flights into space, but every few months spending half a billion dollars just to replace the passengers sounds like a waste to me. I have not recently heard of any discovery from the International Space Station, only hearing about a launch and a landing.