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Pedro Duque ? Cervantes Mission
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Spanish ESA Astronaut Pedro Duque , Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and British born NASA astronaut Michael Foale are just weeks away from taking off, in a Soyuz spacecraft, on a twofold mission to the International Space Station.
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The Cervantes Mission, which is sponsored by the Spanish Government, has two main goals. To carry out an extensive range of experiments aboard the ISS and to replace the TMA-2 spacecraft which is currently attached to the space station with the TMA-3 craft that the crew are travelling up in.
10:01:19
The Soyuz spacecraft attached to the Space station has to be changed against a new one, every six months. Only if it remains in such top condition can it be used as a lifeboat craft for the resident Space Station crew in the event of an emergency.
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For example, the TMA-1 was used to bring back the ISS expedition 6 crew after the Columbia accident made their return by a Shuttle impossible.
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Until the return to flight