NASA selected astronaut Steve Bowen as a mission specialist on STS-133, the next space shuttle mission targeted for launch on Feb. 24. Bowen replaces astronaut Tim Kopra, who was injured in a bicycle accident over the weekend.
"Tim is doing fine and expects a full recovery, however, he will not be able to support the launch window next month," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"If for some unanticipated reason STS-133 slips significantly, it is possible that Tim could rejoin the crew."
The crew change should not affect the mission's target launch date.
Bowen will begin training this week with the STS-133 crew, which includes Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe, and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott.
Bowen also will train to perform the two planned spacewalks of the mission. He will join Alvin Drew to move a failed ammonia pump and perform other external configurations to the station.
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NASA Television To Air Space Station Spacewalk
Two Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station will conduct a spacewalk Friday, Jan. 21, to prepare the complex for future assembly and experiment work. The spacewalk will air live on NASA Television beginning at 8 a.m. CST.
Expedition 26 Flight Engineers Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka will perform the six-hour spacewalk.They will install an experimental Russian radio transmission system, retrieve existing experiments and install a TV camera on the Rassvet mini-research module that will assist in future dockings of vehicles to that port.
The Russian cosmonauts will exit the Pirs docking compartment airlock around 8:20 a.m. in their Russian Orlan spacesuits. The spacewalk will be the first for Kondratyev, who will wear the spacesuit marked with red stripes, and the second for Skripochka, who will wear the suit with blue stripes. Skripochka's first spacewalk was Nov. 15, 2010, and lasted six hours and 27 minutes.
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