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.
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