Two
astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed a fresh
shipment of food, water, parts and holiday gifts Friday after a Russian cargo
tug docked at the orbital laboratory.
"Santa's
sleigh has arrived," ISS Expedition
12 commander Bill McArthur told ISS flight controllers after the successful
docking. "Valery and I have been very good boys this
year, so we're certain there are going to be lots of goodies on board."
McArthur
and flight engineer Valery Tokarev
plan to open hatches between the space station and Russian-built Progress 20
supply ship at 5:15 p.m. EST (2015 GMT), NASA officials said.
"You might
want to get to it soon before it goes bad," astronaut Ken Ham, serving as
station communicator at NASA's ISS mission control in Johnson Space Center,
told the Expedition 12 crew.
NASA
officials said the new cargo ship includes holiday stockings, food treats and
other gifts on top of the regular supply manifest.
Progress 20
launched
toward the ISS on Dec. 21, riding a Russian Soyuz rocket into orbit in a space
shot staged from Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan.
After two days of spaceflight, the supply ship docked smoothly at the space
station's Pirs docking compartment at 2:55 p.m. EST
(1955 GMT). McArthur and Tokarev watched over the
spacecraft's arrival and were prepared to take control remotely if needed, NASA
officials said.
Progress 20
joins a previous cargo ship - Progress
19 - at the ISS. The older spacecraft was originally set to undock from the
aft end of the space station's Russian-built Zvezda
service module, but Russian flight controllers later decided to delay its
departure. The delay, set for March 2006, will allow more time for the
Expedition 12 crew to load Progress 19 with trash and draw on its propellant
and oxygen stores, NASA officials have said.
The arrival
of Progress 20 delivered about 5,680 pounds (2,576 kilograms) of more cargo to
the space station. Included on the manifest were 183 pounds
(83 kilograms)of oxygen and air, 463 pounds (210 kilograms)of water and 1,940
pounds (879 kilograms)) of propellant for the station's thrusters. Progress 20
also delivered, 3,100 pounds (1,406 kilograms) of dry cargo, including food,
experiment hardware, spare parts and holiday gifts for the ISS crew.
McArthur, a
NASA astronaut, and Tokarev, a cosmonaut with Russia's
Federal Space Agency, are nearing the halfway mark of their six-month mission
aboard the ISS. The Expedition 12 crew plan to celebrate a traditional Dec. 25
Christmas, ring in 2006 on Jan. 1 and celebrate Russian Orthodox Christmas on
Jan. 5-6, McArthur said. [Click here
for NASA's video of the Expedition 12 crew's holiday message from the ISS.]
"For me,
Christmas has always been perhaps my favorite time of the year," McArthur said
in prerecorded message, adding he will miss his family most at this time of
year. "But at the same time, what a wonderful way to spend Christmas."
The
astronauts have at least one spacewalk - the second
of their mission - scheduled in February before returning to Earth on April 1.
The crew of
Expedition 13, cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov
and NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams are expected to replace McArthur and Tokarev as ISS caretakers, Russian ISS officials have said.
They will also ferry Brazil's
first astronaut, Marcos
Pontes, to the station for a brief stay before he returns with the
Expedition 12 crew.
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