A Russian Soyuz spacecraft appears to swoop out of the clouds as it
ferries two cosmonauts and the world's fifth space tourist towards the
International Space Station
A Russian
Soyuz spacecraft appears to swoop out of the clouds as it ferries two
cosmonauts and the world's fifth space tourist towards the International Space
Station.
A member of
the three-astronaut Expedition 14 crew aboard the ISS snapped this view of the
incoming Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft on April 9 as it docked
at the orbital laboratory.
Riding aboard
the Soyuz were Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineer Oleg
Kotov, and American billionaire Charles
Simonyi, who paid between $20 million and $25 million for a 13-day flight
to the ISS. Simonyi is documenting his spaceflight, which stems from an
agreement between Russia’s Federal Space Agency and the Virginia-based firm
Space Adventures, via his Web site at www.charlesinspace.com.
Yurchikhin
and Kotov are due to replace Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria
and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who are due to complete their seven-month
mission in space and return to Earth with Simonyi on April 20. Their fellow
Expedition 14 crewmate Sunita Williams will stay aboard the ISS as a member of
the Expedition 15 crew.
Kotov commanded the Soyuz TMA-10’s two-day
trek to the ISS. He chose the name “Pulsar” as his call sign and a small
stuffed black cat doll dubbed “Dilmar” after his two children, Dim and Lara, as
his mascot.
-- Tariq Malik
Credit: NASA.
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