This story was updated at 11:29 a.m. EDT.
A Russian
Soyuz spacecraft carrying American space tourist Richard Garriott and a new
crew for the International Space Station docked at orbiting laboratory early
Tuesday, where three astronauts were eagerly awaiting their arrival inside.
The Soyuz
TMA-13 spacecraft docked
flawlessly at an Earth-facing port on the station's Russian-built Zarya
control module at 4:26 a.m. EDT (0826 GMT) — a few minutes earlier than planned
— as both spacecraft flew high above Kazakhstan, where the Soyuz launched
spaceward on Sunday.
"We have
capture!" said Expedition 18 flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, who commanded the Soyuz
docking under the call sign "Titan" and launched alongside Garriott and new
station commander Michael Fincke.
Garriott is
paying
$30 million for a 10-day trek to the space station under a deal between
Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the Vienna, Va.-based firm Space
Adventures. A computer video game pioneer, Garriott is the world's sixth paying
visitor to the station and the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott,
making him the first
second-generation American spaceflyer.
"I can fly!"
the younger Garriott told his father and friends at Russia's Mission Control
Center outside Moscow via video link after boarding the station. His family
nicknamed him Peter Pan as he floated in weightlessness. "I'm sure excited so
far."
In a
post-docking press briefing, Owen Garriott sat next to famed Russian cosmonaut
Alexander Volkov, whose son Sergei is currently commanding the International
Space Station.
"Many
thanks to Roscosmos,
Energia and
all of the contractors who made this flight possible," the elder Garriott said
during the briefing. "We look forward to the completion in about 10 days."
Aboard the
station, Expedition 17 commander Sergei Volkov and flight engineers Oleg
Kononenko and Greg Chamitoff welcomed their first human visitors since June.
Hatches between the two spacecraft opened at about 5:55 a.m. EDT (0955 GMT).
"We're
really looking forward to seeing them up here," Chamitoff told SPACE.com
last week, adding that the jump from three to six people aboard should be fun.
"It'll be definite change."
Chamitoff
joined the Expedition 17 crew in June and will stay aboard with Fincke and
Lonchakov for the first stage of their six-month Expedition 18 spaceflight. His
current crewmates, Volkov and Kononenko, are wrapping up their own six-month
mission and will return to Earth on Oct. 23 with Garriott.
The
astronauts arrived at a fully functional space station, which includes a
repaired master bathroom inside the outpost's Russian-built Zvezda service
module. The
toilet failed last week for the second time this year, but was swiftly repaired
a day later, NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said from Russia's Mission Control
Center outside Moscow.
Busy
station mission
Tuesday's
docking marked the beginning of a busy flight for both Garriott and station
astronauts.
Garriott
has packed his private spaceflight with a host of science experiments and
educational outreach projects. He has about 500 targets to photograph on Earth,
many of them identical to those observed by his father — a two-time spaceflyer who flew to the U.S.
space station Skylab and aboard a U.S. shuttle — during the Skylab 3 mission in
1973. Owen Garriott is serving as his son's chief scientist for the
spaceflight.
The joint
Expedition 18 and Expedition 17 crew, meanwhile, will begin an intense handover
period as Volkov and Kononenko prepare for their trip home.
Finke and Lonchakov
expect to perform one spacewalk during their mission and host two visiting
space shuttle missions that will bring new equipment vital to prepare the space
station for larger, six-person crews.
"I really
was looking forward to getting a chance to go back," said Fincke, who is making
his second station flight since 2004, in a NASA interview before launch. "This
time, it's much bigger than when I left it and we'll leave it in even better
shape, ready for the next crew."
Fincke's
wife Renita and three children — Chandra, age 7; Tarali, age 4; and 7-month-old
Surya — also sent their love to the veteran spaceflyer from Russia's Mission
Control. His parents Edward and Alma were also on hand.
"I'm glad
to be here, thanks for letting me come to space station. I'm feeling great," a
smiling Fincke told his wife, children and parents. "I'm up here with a bunch
of handsome guys, that's for sure."
Richard
Garriott is chronicling his spaceflight training and mission at his personal
Web site: www.richardinspace.com.
advertisement
