A spaceship carrying a new US-Russian crew and an Italian astronaut docked early Sunday at the international space station, launching a mission that is slated to welcome the first space shuttle flight in two years.
The Soyuz space ship locked onto the station at 6:20am. The three cosmonauts who blasted off Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan -- Russian Sergei Krikalev, American John Phillips and Italian Roberto Vittori from the European Space Agency -- floated into the station about three hours later to joyful embraces from the two men who have manned the orbiting outpost for the last six months.
Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao were due to return to Earth along with Vittori on April 25. Sharipov presented the new arrivals with the traditional Russian welcome offering of bread and salt; later, presumably, they would dig into the fresh produce ferried by the incoming crew and the Italian fare Vittori had brought to spice up the space diet.
"We are very happy to see the new crew arrive and we wish them an excellent mission," Sharipov said over a video linkup with Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, outside Moscow.
Earlier, before dawn broke over the Russian capital, space engineers had monitored the docking via a video feed from a camera affixed to the Soyuz TMA-6 spaceship, which tracked the vessel's slow final approach. They broke into applause when they saw that the automatic parking system had operated flawlessly.
"We successfully launched the new, permanent Expedition 11," the deputy director of Russia's Federal Space Agency, Nikolai Moiseyev, told reporters.
A dozen men in colorful Italian military uniforms were on hand to mark Vittori's arrival at the station, and an Italian flag was draped over a balcony overlooking the monitoring hall.
Fred Gregory, deputy administrator of the US space agency NASA, congratulated Russian space officials on "a very successful launch and docking operation conducted in a very professional way."
He said that the resumption of US space shuttle flights was on schedule.
"The return to flight activities for the shuttle appears to be on time," Gregory said. "We are hopeful that we'll be able to launch within the first window," which he said was May 15-June 3.
The shuttle program has been suspended for two years, with the Russian Soyuz capsule -- which weighs only 7 tonnes -- being the only means of getting astronauts to the station since Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003. Russian cargo ships alone have delivered fresh supplies during the interim.
A key task for Krikalev and Phillips will be to observe the condition of the insulating tiles as the Discovery approaches the station, conducting a photo survey of the exterior of the shuttle while it is maneuvering prior to docking.
Following tradition, the crewmen will also conduct scientific experiments, about 70 percent of them devoted to medical research, said Vladimir Solovyov, Mission Control chief.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in