Hum Posted March 30, 2006 Share Posted March 30, 2006 BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) -- A Russian Soyuz rocket streaked into the skies over the Central Asian steppe on Thursday, launching a U.S.-Russian-Brazilian crew on a mission to the international space station. Russian Pavel Vinogradov and American Jeffrey Williams were to stay on board the station for about six months. Brazil's first man in space, Marcos C. Pontes, will stay at the station for nine days before returning to Earth on April 9 with the station's current crew of Russian Valery Tokarev and American Bill McArthur. Officials monitoring the launch at Russian Mission Control outside Moscow held their applause until the spacecraft reached near-Earth orbit, about 10 minutes after its 6:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) launch. A video camera aboard the craft showed Pontes wearing a wide smile, giving a thumbs-up and pointing to the Brazilian flag on the left arm of his spacesuit. During a November 2004 visit to Brazil, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that Russia would help Brazil resume its space program and restore its launch base, which was destroyed by a 2003 rocket explosion that killed 21 people. The Soyuz TMA 8 spacecraft is due to dock at the station early Saturday. Vinogradov, who is the commander of the crew, said they would carry out over 65 scientific experiments during the mission, including some to test human reaction to prolonged space travel. full story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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