posted 10-01-2005 12:19 AM               

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The 12th crew of the international space station rocketed into space at 11:55 p.m. EDT, Friday to begin a six-month mission.

A Soyuz spacecraft carried Expedition 12 Commander William McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev into orbit. American businessman Gregory Olsen rode with them. Olsen is beginning a 10-day mission of scientific experiments as part of a commercial contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The Soyuz launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. At launch, the space station was flying approximately 230 miles above the south Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile. With Tokarev at the controls, the Soyuz is on course to dock with the station at 1:32 a.m. EDT, Monday.

The hatches between the Soyuz spacecraft and the station will be opened at about 4:25 a.m. EDT, Monday. Live NASA TV coverage of the docking begins Monday at midnight.

During their stay, McArthur and Tokarev will mark five years of continuous human presence in orbit. They will pursue the station's mission of learning how to live and work for long periods in space.

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer John Phillips have been doing research and maintaining station systems since April. Along with Olsen, they will return to Earth at 9:08 p.m. EDT, Oct. 10.

The Expedition 11 crew members spent the past week preparing for the arrival of the next station crew. On Tuesday, they each spent more than an hour familiarizing themselves with Olsen's scientific experiments. On Thursday, they conducted pre-docking tests and prepared for their departure. This included packing and readying their launch and entry suits. Krikalev and Phillips also checked out the Soyuz spacecraft that brought them to the station April 16 to ensure it is ready for the return to Earth.

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posted 10-01-2005 12:38 AM               

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Space Adventures(R), Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, announced today that American technology entrepreneur Greg Olsen, Ph.D. and his Soyuz TMA-7 crew successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Dr. Olsen joins the Expedition 12 crew for his eight-day mission at the space station.

Dr. Olsen, entrepreneur and founder of EPITAXX, Inc. and Sensors Unlimited, Inc., commented before the launch, "This will undoubtedly be one of my greatest life accomplishments and I look forward in sharing my experience while in space and when I return. Hard work and determination has led me to where I am today and I encourage today's youth to dream big. If I can do it, so can you!"

Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, the company which organized the spaceflights for the world's first and only private space explorers, American businessman Dennis Tito and the 'First African in Space' Mark Shuttleworth, said, "Today marks another triumph in commercial space travel. Greg has been committed to this mission since day one and so has the staff at Space Adventures. He is an inspiration to us and I'm sure he will inspire millions around the world through this mission."

Dr. Olsen has completed over 900 hours of training in Star City, Russia in preparation for this mission. While aboard the ISS, he will participate in a research program prepared by the European Space Agency that will study the human body's response to the microgravity environment. The experiments are designed to study the possible cause of nausea and lower back pain; and the evolution of human bacterial flora.

In addition to scientific experiments, Dr. Olsen will communicate with over 30 high school students in New Jersey and New York via HAM radio signal. This effort has been organized through the Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS) international working group. Dr. Olsen will also speak to family, friends and colleagues via video tele-bridge that will be carried as a web cast, courtesy of Sensors Unlimited. Those interested in viewing this web cast will be able to log onto http://www.SensorsInc.com on October 4 from 6:27 to 6:39 p.m. (EDT); October 6 from 5:42 to 5:54 p.m. (EDT); and October 7 from 6:07 to 6:19 p.m. (EDT).

Dr. Olsen was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He earned dual bachelor degrees in electrical engineering and physics from Fairleigh Dickinson University. After he finished his undergraduate work, he earned his masters in physics at Fairleigh Dickinson and then his Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Virginia in 1971. From 1972 to 1983, he worked at RCA Laboratories, now known as the Sarnoff Corporation. In 1984, Dr. Olsen started his first company, EPITAXX, Inc. and later sold it for $12 million (USD). He founded Sensors Unlimited, Inc. in 1992, later sold it for $700 million (USD) in 2000, bought it back in 2002 for $6 million (USD) and sold it last month for $60 million (USD).

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