A Russian spaceship carrying three crew has docked successfully with the International Space Station. The Soyuz craft carrying cosmonauts Salizhan
Sharipov and Yuri Shargin and US astronaut Leroy Chiao docked one minute ahead of schedule. The three will spend 10 days taking over from the outgoing
crew who will return to Earth along with Shargin. They plan to be in the ISS for six months.
news.bbc.co.uk
The new crew - Expedition 10 - will study plant growth and carry out experiments on possible vaccines against Aids, and plan to make two space walks.
Their arrival marks the fourth trip to the ISS by a Soyuz spacecraft since the US suspended shuttle flights after the Columbia disaster of February
2003.
The Expedition 9 crew - Russian Gennady Padalka and American Mike Fincke - have completed a six-month tour of duty.
The new space crew were in jovial mood when they gave their last media conference before blast-off in a Russian Soyuz TMA-5 rocket. Technical problems
had twice led to their launch date being put back.
Since the Columbia shuttle disaster in February 2003, Russian Soyuz craft have been the only means of getting crews to and from the ISS.
The latest estimate of when the US orbiters might return to flight is May next year at the earliest. Construction on the multi-billion-dollar platform
is on hold until the shuttles are brought back into service and can carry up new components for the station.
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When we hopefully go to the Moon, Mars and beyond, it"s quite clear that we will need an international cooperation. This is just a stepping stone.
Hopefully during their time in the international space station good things will come. A cure for AIDS is despritaly needed as millions still continue
to die. The time for this vaccine is now.
Best of luck to the two brave astonauts.
