Ed Lu, a NASA astronaut and CU-Boulder alumnus, will return to Earth Oct. 27 following a six-month stint on the International Space Station with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, commander of the Expedition 7 mission.
Lu and Malenchenko are slated to head back to Earth in a Soyuz capsule equipped with a parachute Oct. 27. The Soyuz spacecraft is expected to launch on Oct. 18 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrive at the International Space Station with three crew replacements from the United States, Russia and Spain on Oct. 20.
A week later, Lu and Malenchenko will be sent back to Earth. The Soyuz capsule is expected to float down by parachute and land in the Kazakhstan region. This will be the second time Americans have returned to Earth in Soyuz spacecraft since the February Columbia shuttle crash and subsequent safety reevaluation of the U.S. shuttle program by NASA and Congress.
The two launched April 26 on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the orbiting Space Station, spending their time on the ISS operating science payloads already on board and maintaining the massive station.
Sixteen CU-Boulder alumni have gone on to fly in space, among the highest output of astronauts of any university in the nation.
Lu was a postdoctoral researcher working with CU-Boulder Professor Andrew Hamilton of JILA from 1990 to 1992. He flew aboard the Atlantis space shuttle in 1997 to Russia's Mir space station and also was an astronaut on Atlantis in 2000, which docked with the ISS to prepare it for permanent human occupancy.
While at CU-Boulder, Lu collaborated with Hamilton on cutting-edge cosmology research. Hamilton is an internationally known expert on the large-scale structure of the universe.
"He is a delightful guy with a lot of initiative," said Hamilton of Lu. "I was not surprised when he entered the NASA astronaut program because of his broad range of interests." Lu entered the one-year NASA astronaut-training program at Houston's Johnson Space Center in March 1994.
A color image of Lu can be downloaded from the Web at: .
NASA television is planning extensive coverage of the crew exchange, including the launch and docking of the next ISS crew and landing of the capsule carrying Lu and Malenchenko. The coverage will centered at NASA's Johnson Space Center and the Russian Mission Control Center in Korolev. The coverage will include live television and commentary.
NASA TV also will cover an in-flight news conference on ISS Oct. 23. NASA television is available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz.
For more information about NASA TV, visit the Web site at: .