A Russian rocket carrying two cosmonauts and an American astronaut to the International Space Station streaked into orbit on yesterday as part of another crew rotation in a Russian space vehicle filling in for US space shuttles.
For Russians Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and American Leroy Chiao, it was the first mission in a Soyuz spacecraft -- breaking the nearly 30-year tradition of having at least one crewman with previous experience in piloting the capsule. Chiao and Sharipov both have flown US space shuttles, while Shargin is a rookie.
PHOTO: EPA
The Soyuz TMA-5 spacecraft lifted off as scheduled from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the bleak, wind-swept steppes of Kazakhstan at 7:06am Moscow time and entered its designated orbit less than 10 minutes later.
"The crew reached orbit and the parameters are normal," Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov told reporters in Korolyov, outside Moscow. "We are in for two days of quite energetic work."
The spaceship is due to dock with the station at 8:17am on Saturday.
NASA deputy administrator Fred Gregory, who came to Baikonur to see the launch, hailed US-Russian cooperation on the space station as the basis for future space forays.
"This partnership between Russia and the United States ... has really blossomed into a collaborative and very trusting and cooperative program," Gregory told reporters.
"What we learn on the station will provide a lot of information as we move step by the step to the Moon and Mars and beyond." Since the mid-1970s, Soviet and Russian space crews always have included a cosmonaut with previous pilot experience to ensure a smooth ride. The tradition has been broken because several veteran cosmonauts have resigned in recent years and the space agency hasn't had enough seats on recent Soyuz missions to train their replacements.
Russian space officials have played down the lack of Soyuz experience. "It's true it's their first time flying the Soyuz, but I don't see anything scary in that," Solovyov said. "What's hardest is not what ship you're surrounded by but the surrounding, aggressive factors of space and two of the crew members are already familiar with that."
Gregory also said that flying a Soyuz for the first time wasn't a problem for a crew with previous experience in space.
"The countries have some excellent astronauts and cosmonauts, and when they are allowed to fly on the Soyuzes or the space shuttle these folks have the ability to adapt very quickly to that environment," he said.
Soyuz spacecraft are guided by autopilot on their approach to the station and during the docking, but the crew is trained to operate it manually in case of computer failure. The grounding of the US shuttle fleet following the Columbia disaster on Feb. 1 last year has left Russian spacecraft as the sole link to the 16-nation station.
Gregory said the US was looking for "at least one more" station crew rotation in a Soyuz flight, tentatively set for April. He said NASA hopes to conduct its first post-Columbia shuttle flight around May.
Russian millionaire businessman Sergei Polonsky, who said he was ready to pay some US$20 million, was initially scheduled to join the crew. Polonsky was eventually jettisoned after officials said he was too tall for the tiny capsule.
Polonsky was replaced by Shargin, a Russian military officer who is to return to Earth in 10 days with the station's current crew, Russian Gennady Padalka and American Mike Fincke, who are ending a six-month mission.
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