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Soyuz Craft Docks With International Space Station
By Vladamir Isachenkov
Associated Press
posted: 09:00 am ET
20 October 2003
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MOSCOW (AP) -- A three-man crew docked with the International Space Station on Monday, the second time a Russian Soyuz has visited since the U.S. shuttle program was grounded after the disintegration of shuttle Columbia. Since the Feb. 1 disaster, the United States has depended on Russia to keep its astronauts flying. The Russian Soyuz, whose primary role was to serve as an emergency evacuation craft for the station, is now the only ship capable of carrying crews to and from the 16-nation space outpost. Astronauts Michael Foale of the United States and Russian Alexander Kaleri are the eighth crew to have flown to the station for long-term occupation since the inaugural crew arrived on Nov. 2, 2000. Pedro Duque of Spain, a European Space Agency astronaut traveling with Foale and Kaleri, is to remain aboard the station for eight days and return on Oct. 27 with American Ed Lu and Russian Yuri Malenchenko, who have been aboard since April 28. Applause broke out at Mission Control outside Moscow after the 3:16 a.m. EST (0716 GMT) docking Monday morning two days after the Soyuz lifted off from the Russian space facility in Kazakhstan. ``I congratulate all our partners on this spectacular success today,'' William Readdy, associate administrator at NASA, told a news conference. ``Our gratitude to our partners is extreme and our pledge to our partners is that our primary objective is to return the space shuttle to flying safely as soon as we possibly can, perhaps this time next year,'' Readdy said. For Spain, it was an especially moving moment. ``This flight gives a way for Spain to demonstrate its readiness to support the ISS,'' Vicente Gomez, a Spanish representative of the European Space Agency. Foale will become the first American to have served on both the ISS and its predecessor, the Russian Mir. Malenchenko will become the first person to have left the planet single and return to a wife. He was married in August while in orbit. More from SPACE.com:
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