Next station crew named

Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut will make up the crew of the 14th expedition to the International Space Station, using two different modes of transportation to get to the outpost.

NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, a veteran of three shuttle missions, will command the expedition and serve as the U.S. science officer aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Launching with him aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in September will be veteran cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who will serve as Soyuz commander and station flight engineer.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams will join the crew late this year, traveling to the station aboard shuttle Discovery after a launch tentatively scheduled for mid-December. The spaceflight will be her first.

Lopez-Alegria has flown on three shuttle missions: STS-73 in 1995, STS-92 in 2000 and STS-113 in 2002. He has logged more than 42 days in space and 34 hours of spacewalking.

Williams is a graduate of the Naval Academy and earned a Master of Science degree from Florida Institute of Technology. A graduate of Naval Test Pilot School, she has logged more than 2,770 flight hours in 30 different aircraft.

Tyurin, a cosmonaut since 1993, was the flight engineer aboard the station for Expedition 3 in 2001. Her served aboard the outpost with U.S. commander Frank Culbertson and Russian flight engineer Vladimir Dezhurov. The three were the only people off the planet when on Sept. 11, 2001, and reported on the terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon from orbit.

NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Clay Anderson will serve as back-up commander and flight engineer for Expedition 14, respectively. Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is the back-up Soyuz commander and flight engineer.