STAR CITY, Russia (AP) - Cooperation
between nations comes easily at zero gravity - but soccer is a different
matter, Brazil's first man in space said Tuesday after a nine-day visit to the
International Space Station.
"The first thing that is
interesting is that when people from different countries, with different
outlooks and different cultures see the same problems and decide to solve them
in different ways,'' their cooperation can bring "solutions for all mankind,'' Marcos
Pontes, who returned
to Earth on Sunday along with Russian Valery Tokarev and American Bill
McArthur, said at a joint news conference.
Pontes, who carried a Brazilian
flag and soccer jersey to the space station in the hope that it would bring
his national team victory in this summer's World Cup, said he also took along a
soccer ball - but found the most popular sport on Earth a daunting challenge
hundreds of miles (kilometers) above the planet.
"I took a football with me
to space, but I did not manage to play there because the ball was simply
floating there and it turned out to be too complicated,'' he said with a smile.
The Russian capsule
carrying Pontes, McArthur
and Tokarev - both of whom had spent six months on the space station - touched
down Sunday in Kazakhstan after what mission control officials called a
flawless flight.
McArthur said the
experience of station crews would be useful for future interplanetary manned
missions.
"I think we've demonstrated
the capability to perform the type of very complex tasks that are going to be
required of a crew between the Earth and Mars when they know they cannot rely
on a supply ship from Earth and they can't wait for the next crew to come up,''
he told the news conference at Star City, the cosmonaut training center outside
Moscow.
Pontes had arrived
at the station on April 1 with its new crew members, Russian commander Pavel
Vinogradov and U.S. flight engineer Jeff Williams, who are also to spend six
months in orbit.
Pontes, a Brazilian Air Force
lieutenant colonel, trained in the United States and had been scheduled to fly
to the station aboard a U.S. shuttle - plans that were scrapped after the
February 2003 Columbia disaster.
The U.S. space program has
depended on the Russians for cargo and astronaut delivery since the Columbia
disaster grounded the shuttle fleet.
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