A new
astronaut crew and the first Brazilian to leave the planet are aboard the
International Space Station (ISS) after a two-day trek inside a Russian
spacecraft.
Brazilian
astronaut Marcos
Pontes and the 13th
crew to the ISS were greeted with smiles and handshakes by Expedition
12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev, who are wrapping
up a six-month stay aboard the orbital laboratory.
"It certainly is a
treat to see these guys up here with us," McArthur said of the visitors in a post-docking video message.
The Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft
carrying Pontes, Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer
Jeffrey Williams docked at the ISS late Friday at 11:19 p.m. EST (0419 April 1
GMT) following a March
29 EST launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Central Asia's Kazakhstan.
"This is the final stop on
our train," Vinogradov said after the docking.
The three
astronauts entered the ISS at about 12:59 a.m. EST (0559 GMT) from their perch
at the Earth-facing port along the station's Zarya control module. Vinogradov
and Williams will relieve the Expedition 12 crew and begin their own six-month
mission.
Brazilian
space
Pontes, who
made history this week as the first Brazilian to fly in space, waved his nation's
flag inside the ISS while speaking with space agency officials on Earth.
"I'm happy to be
here," Pontes said just after entering the ISS. "And I've got the
flag too!"
Pontes will
spend eight days aboard the ISS conducting experiments before returning home
with the Expedition 12 crew on April 8. His Centennial Mission celebrates the
100-year anniversary of Brazil's first heavier-than-air flight by aviator
Alberto Santo-Dumont, he said.
"One
Brazilian cosmonaut means that a small part of each Brazilian is now in
space," a Brazilian Space Agency official said during a post-docking press
conference.
Pontes joined NASA as an international
astronaut in 1998 hoping for a shuttle flight to conduct experiments for his
country. NASA's 2003 Columbia
shuttle accident, and subsequent delays, prompted Brazil's space agency to purchase
a Soyuz seat from Russia's Federal Space Agency.
NASA also purchased a seat
aboard the Soyuz TMA-8 flight to the ISS. Under an agreement with the Federal
Space Agency, NASA is paying about $43.8 million for Williams' flight to the
ISS and McArthur's return to Earth.
Shuttle
visits, construction and more
Vinogradov
and Williams have a busy stint scheduled for their ISS mission.
The
astronauts are prepared to host two space shuttles missions - one in July and
another in August - that could not only return the ISS to its nominal
three-person crew, but also resume construction after more than three years of
delay.
NASA's
second return to flight mission, STS-121 aboard Discovery, is slated to arrive
at the space station in July with Thomas
Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut who will join the Expedition 13
crew.
"After more
than three years of flying two-person crews, we will maybe return the station
to its full capacity," Williams said before his flight.
Space
station crews have been limited to two
astronauts since the Columbia accident.
The
Expedition 13 crew also has two spacewalks on their docket before NASA's
STS-115 shuttle flight is expected to deliver a new set of solar arrays to the
outpost in late August.
Straight
to work
All five
astronauts aboard the ISS went straight to work after a brief, but traditional,
welcoming ceremony.
The joint
Expedition 12-Expedition 13 crew began buttoning down the Soyuz TMA-8
spacecraft as Pontes prepared to begin a series of science experiments in the U.S. and Russian segments of the station. Their day won't end until about mid-day Saturday.
On Monday,
Williams and McArthur are expected to camp out in the space station's
U.S.-built Quest airlock, where spacewalk managers hope to test an alternative
way to prepare astronauts for spacewalks in NASA spacesuits - which operate at
a lower pressure than the ISS cabin.
But the
thought of that hard work did not dampen Vinogradov's spirits as he and his
Soyuz crewmates neared the ISS.
"It's
a big station, beautiful," Vinogradov said as the Soyuz approached the
space station. "It's kind of dark but it's beautiful.
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