Soyuz docks to station
BY SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: April 27, 2002

The International Space Station and its three-man resident crew received a replacement Soyuz lifeboat and three visitors today, including South African space tourist Mark Shuttleworth.

The station's Russian-made Soyuz escape lifeboat, to be used by the outpost's crew to evacuate in the event of a problem for safe return to Earth, has a six-month service life in space. As such, the craft have to be replaced.

The new capsule was piloted to a smooth docking by commander Yuri Gidzenko at 0756 GMT (3:56 a.m. EDT) today while flying about 240 miles above Central Asia. The Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft was docked to the Earth-facing port of the Russian Zarya module.

Joining Gidzenko and Shuttleworth on the Soyuz "taxi crew" is Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori.

An orbit after docking, the three floated into the station for a welcoming ceremony at 0924 GMT (5:24 a.m. EDT).

The "taxi crew" will spend a week aboard the station before undocking in the old Soyuz TM-33 craft from the Pirs module around 2305 GMT (7:05 p.m. EDT) on May 4 and flying the capsule home.

Gidzenko is making his third space mission. He returns to the station after living for four months aboard the complex from November 2000 to February 2001 as a member of the vanguard Expedition One crew.

Vittori is on his first flight, which was made possible under a contract between the Italian Space Agency and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Shuttleworth, an Internet millionaire, is also a space rookie flying under contract with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency.

The station's full-time residents -- the Expedition Four crew of commander Yuri Onufrienko and American flight engineers Dan Bursch and Carl Walz -- are currently in the fifth month of their tour-of-duty in orbit.

Spaceflight Now Plus
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   VIDEO: SOYUZ CAPSULE DOCKS TO SPACE STATION QT or RV
   VIDEO: VIEW FROM SOYUZ OF APPROACH AND DOCKING QT or RV
   VIDEO: SOYUZ CREW FLOATS INTO STATION QT or RV
   VIDEO: SHUTTLEWORTH AND CREW WELCOMED ABOARD QT or RV
   MORE: COMPLETE SFN+ VIDEO INDEX

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