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Soyuz Rocket Carrying New Russian-US Crew Enters Orbit

Posted on: Thursday, 14 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

Soyuz rocket carrying new Russian-US crew enters orbit

MOSCOW, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Russian-made Soyuz TMA-5 rocket, which carries a new Russian-US crew, successfully entered orbit 10 minutes after its launch Thursday morning from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan toward the International Space Station ( ISS), Russian space officials said.

The Soyuz TMA-5 rocket, which blast off at 07:06 a.m. Moscow time (0306 GMT), carried Russian cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov and Yuri Shargin, and Leroy Chiao of the United States to the orbiting space hub.

The spacecraft is set to dock with the floating space station at 8:24 a. m. Moscow time (0424 GMT) Saturday morning.

Sharipov and Chiao, the tenth ISS expedition, will replace Russian Gennady Padalka and American Michael Fincke who have been in orbit since April.

Shargin, a Russian space forces officer. will return to earth in 10 days with the outgoing ninth crew.

Sharipov and Chiao are expected to stay for six months aboard the space hub and conduct a large number of medical, biological, and technical experiments.

They will also carry out two space walks in December and January to continue preparations for the docking of a new European cargo spacecraft scheduled for next year.

The launch of the Soyuz TMA-5 was originally scheduled for Oct. 9, but postponed due to technical difficulties with the craft's docking system. Russia's Federal Space Agency said earlier this month that the technical problems had been solved.

ISS, the 16-nation space hub, used to be heavily reliant on US shuttle flights. But since the US shuttle program has been grounded after NASA's Columbia spaceship disintegrated on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven crew on board, Russian Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships remain the sole means of transporting to the space station.

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