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Soyuz Launches Next ISS Crew Into Orbit: Docking Saturday
Baikonur (AFP) Oct 14, 2004 A Soyuz TMA-5 rocket carrying Russia's Salizhan Sharipov and Yury Shargin and US astronaut Leroy Chiao successfully entered orbit 10 minutes after blasting off for the International Space Station early Thursday, Russian space officials said. The Soyuz, which took off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur space base, is due to dock with the ISS Saturday, with Chiao and Sharipov remaining on the space station until April 2005, while Shargin will spend only 10 days in orbit. "The rocket blasted off at 0306 GMT as planned and entered orbit at 0316 GMT," Russian space agency spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko told AFP. "The launch went without any problem. The Soyuz TMA-5 rocket successfully entered orbit," Davidenko added. Russian space officials and their NASA counterparts, who attended the event from a vantage point located two kilometers (1.2 miles) away from the launching pad, applauded as the Soyuz was launched and then entered orbit. The Soyuz blasted away from the Yury Gagarin launching pad, located in the middle of the Kazakh steppe and named in honor of the Soviet cosmonaut who, on April 12, 1961, became the first man to fly into space. Chiao and Sharipov, who will be the ISS' 10th crew since the historic launch of the first module in 1998, will replace Gennady Padalka, from Russia, and American Michael Fincke who have been in orbit since April. Shargin will fly back to Earth with Padalka and Fincke. The cosmonauts, after training for several months at Star City near Moscow, are due to carry out 41 scientific, medical, biological and technical experiments. One experiment is to study proteins that could be used to create a vaccine against AIDS, Sharipov said. During the mission, the crew is scheduled to leave the station twice, once in December and once in January, to continue preparations for the docking of a new European cargo spacecraft scheduled for next year. The mission of Shargin -- an officer in the Russian defence ministry -- on the ISS space station was described by the commander of Russia's space forces in July as "an interesting programme that will be useful to the space forces and to the whole country." Asked about the activities of Shargin on the ISS, Sharipov said they would focus on "ecological monitoring," stressing that the space station was a "civilian" station where military experiments are banned. The launch of Soyuz TMA-5 was originally scheduled for October 9 but was postponed due to technical difficulties with the craft's docking system. Russia's Federal Space Agency reported earlier this month that the technical problems had since been solved. All ISS crew currently travel to the station on Russian vessels. Flights of the US space shuttle were suspended following the disintegration on reentry of the shuttle Columbia in February 2003, but expected to resume next year. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Space Station News at Space-Travel.Com
NASA Had No Choice But To Buy Soyuz Flights
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 09, 2006NASA's announcement last week that it will pay Roskosmos $43.6 million for a round-trip ride to the International Space Station this spring, and an equivalent figure for an as-yet-undetermined number of future flights to the station until 2012, represents the agency's acknowledgment that it had no alternative. |
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