spacetoday.net: Soyuz docks with ISS

Posted: Sat, Apr 27, 2002, 11:07 AM ET (1507 GMT)
Mark Shuttleworth enters ISS (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three people, including space tourist Mark Shuttleworth, docked with the International Space Station early Saturday. The Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft docked with Zarya module of ISS at 3:56 am EDT (0756 GMT), and hatches between the station and Soyuz opened about 90 minutes later. Shuttleworth and crewmates Yuri Gidzenko and Roberto Vittori will spend a week on the station, joining the three-man Expedition Four crew. Shuttleworth, the second commercial space tourist and the first South African in space, plans to spend his time on the station performing a number of experiments developed by South African students. The flight is Gidzenko's second stay on the station: he was also a member of the original Expedition One crew. The taxi mission crew will leave the station on May 4 on the Soyuz TM-33 that has been docked to ISS for the last six months, leaving the new TM-34 spacecraft behind as a lifeboat for the station crew.