It took Soyuz 49 hours to reach the space station * a manual docking was performed and the control center in Moscow did not explain the reason for this
Avi Blizovsky
Both Sharifov and Chow are of Asian descent
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A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-person crew has successfully docked with the International Space Station. This is what the Russian control center said. Cosmonauts Shalizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and the American astronaut Leroy Chao arrived at the station in a Soyuz spacecraft. They docked at the station at 04:16 GMT, a full minute ahead of schedule.
The three will spend 10 days replacing the existing crew that will return to Earth together with Shargin. Chao and Sharipov will spend the next six months aboard the International Space Station.
At the control center in Korolev, near Moscow, everyone burst into applause upon hearing the news of the safe docking. Earlier, the control center announced that the crew would dock the Soyuz manually, and did not give the reason for this.
The members of the team, which is the tenth in number, will study how plants grow and perform experiments on possible vaccines against AIDS, and they are also planned to perform two spacewalks. The arrival of the crew marks the fourth flight to the space station using Soyuz spacecraft since the shuttle flights were suspended due to the Columbia disaster in February 2003.
The ninth team - the Russian Gandy Padalka and the American Mike Fink completed six months on the job.
Shortly before reaching its destination, the spacecraft advanced at a higher speed than recommended. As a result, she began to transmit a distress signal, which signaled to the crew that it was necessary to switch from automatic flight mode to manual operation. "We were very stressed," said Lyudmila Lutokina, Yuri Shargin's wife. "It's not the first time we've seen a team in action, but of course when it comes to people you love it's a different kind of anxiety."
Yuri Semyonov, the head of the Soyuz manufacturer "Energia", described the moments before the landing. "During the approach to the station, we encountered a speed deviation," he said. "We need to find the reasons why this happened. At the moment of landing, the devices sent a distress signal and the crew had to take command."
"close to danger"
The mission control commander, Vladimir Soloikov, said that about 200 meters before landing at the station, the ship braked and went into manual mode. "Even though we felt increased speed, everything went smoothly," he said. "It was close to a dangerous situation, but the team behaved brilliantly." NASA Deputy Administrator, Fred Gregory, agreed: "It turned out that the team arrived well trained."
The landing of the Soyuz at the station was greeted with applause among the mission control team. The relatives of the astronauts let out a sigh of relief. Unlike previous Soyuz missions, none of the current crew members have flown it before. But officials downplayed the lack of experience and said the team had been adequately trained.
The members of the new crew sounded confirmed at the last press conference in which they appeared on the eve of their flight on the Russian Soyuz TMA-5 rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Technical problems twice led to the postponement of the launch. "Shelizhan is a flexible person and has become a very good friend of mine," Chao said in an interview with Reuters. "It will be fun to spend the next six months with him." he added, in fluent Russian.
Yadan International Space Station
For news at the BBC
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