Space station crew's stay extended

	Astronaut Michael Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri are the eighth crew to man the International Space Station.
	Story Tools
	YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Exploration Europe Space Programs or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this?

(CNN) -- The two-man crew aboard the international space station will stay in space one extra day, returning to Earth April 30, to enable the returning crew to extend its handover operations with the crew that will take its place, a NASA spokesman said.

Astronaut Michael Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri have been in orbit on the space station since an October blastoff from Kazakhstan.

The extension also will allow visiting European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, of the Netherlands, an extra day to conduct his own scientific research program, which he is conducting under an agreement between the ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency, the NASA spokesman said.

Kuipers is scheduled to head to the space station with the incoming crew next month before he returns to Earth with Foale and Kaleri.

The space station is jointly funded by 16 nations.

Story Tools		Subscribe to Time for $1.99

Quake jitters hit California • Protection ordered for Pacific right whales • Survey: Siberian tiger populations appear stable • Growing deserts 'a global problem'

CNN/Money: Security alert issued for 40 million credit cards • Bin Laden deputy sends message • U.S. House votes to keep U.N. dues • Iran poll to go to run-off