Docking Day: Soyuz Spacecraft to Ferry New Crew, Space Tourist to ISS Today

A Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft carrying two professional cosmonauts and an American billionaire is en route to the International Space Station (ISS) for a Monday afternoon rendezvous.

Riding aboard the Soyuz TMA-10 vehicle are U.S. entrepreneur Charles Simonyi -- the world's fifth space tourist -- alongside ISS Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov. The spaceflyers launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome Saturday and are due to dock at the space station at about 3:12 p.m. EDT (1912 GMT) today.

"Astronauts reported that they feel good after at the end of the first day of the flight," the Russian Mission Control Center told Russia's Interfax News Agency Sunday. "They are adapting to zero gravity conditions. They took a sip of sleep and have taken meals several times."

Kotov is commanding the two-day Soyuz trek to the ISS, where he and Yurchikhin will relieve two members of the station's current three-astronaut Expedition 14 team during a 13-day crew swap.

The cosmonauts will replace Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who have lived and worked aboard the orbital laboratory since September 2006. A third Expedition 14 astronaut, NASA spaceflyer Sunita Williams, will join ranks with the Expedition 15 crew until her planned return to Earth later this summer.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin are due to return to Earth aboard their own Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft on April 20 with Simonyi, whose is paying between $20 million to $25 million for his 13-day space trek under an agreement between Russia's Federal Space Agency and the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures.

"I am really looking forward to the flight," Simonyi, 58, wrote in his blog on launch day. He is documenting his spaceflight on his Web site www.charlesinspace.com.

During his 11 days aboard the ISS, Simonyi will perform a series of experiments for the Hungary Space Organization, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and European Space Agency, as well as speak with students on Earth while enjoying his spaceflight.

"Looking out the window will be a no-no for awhile unless I will be one of the lucky ones who is not susceptible to space motion sickness," Simonyi wrote of the two-day Soyuz flight in his blog just before launch.

The Soyuz flight to the ISS marks the first time Simonyi, Kotov or Yurchikhin have ever flown inside the Russian spacecraft, though it is Yurchikhin's second flight to the ISS. He last launched towards the station aboard NASA's Atlantis orbiter during the U.S. space agency's STS-112 mission in October 2002.

"Space station looks just a bit different," Yurchikhin told SPACE.com before launch.

NASA will provide live video coverage of the Expedition 15 crew's ISS rendezvous, docking and hatch opening activities on NASA TV beginning at 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT). Click here for SPACE.com's NASA TV feed and ISS mission coverage.

• IMAGES: Space Tourist, Expedition 15 Crew Train for Launch
• VIDEO: Space Tourist Charles Simonyi in Zero G!
• Complete International Space Station Mission Coverage