ISS About to Have a Crew of Six With Soyuz-TMA 15 Launch "The International Space Station crew is awaiting the arrival of three new members that will usher in an era of six-person crews aboard the orbiting laboratory. Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday morning from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan." Okay, with American, Russian, Japanese, European and Canadian modules, an upcoming visit from a Japanese RRV and a quin-national crew, I don't think anyone can seriously claim that this isn't an International Space Station anymore. Heck... that Soyuz is a cramped little can, isn't it? How they ever planned to send men to the Moon in that thing...! The Soyuz is the safest and most successful human carrying craft so far. Its time for its successor to come along, and I would like it to be US made, but there is much to be admired and learned from Soyuz. In Apollo, the control panels were much closer to the upper bodies of the crew, within easy reach. On one of the later missions, when they had live TV from inside the capsule during launch, I was surprised to see one of the astronauts holding a checklist overhead in one gloved hand while pushing buttons with the other. I remember Walter Cronkheit remarking it put an end to the old sci-fi movie image of crushing acceleration. On all the empty space, this