Russia Launches Manned Space Mission to Iss

MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) – A Soyuz TMA-5 spaceship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome with a Soyuz-FG rocket at 7:06 a.m. on Thursday, an Interfax correspondent reported from Mission Control Center.

“The launch proceeded perfectly and at 7:15 a.m. the vehicle reached the desired orbit and separated from the last stage of the launch vehicle. Soyuz TMZ-5 is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 8:25 a.m. Moscow time on October 16,” the correspondent reported.

The crew of the 10th expedition includes Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov, NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao and Russian Space Force cosmonaut Yury Shargin. Sharipov and Chiao will replace members of the 9th expedition, Russia’s Gennady Padalka and U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke. Like their predecessors, Sharipov and Chiao will stay at the station for about six months.

During that period, they will carry out various research projects, including studies of crystal growth in space and monitoring of biological resources in addition to other various medical experiments.

Shargin, who will return to Earth with Padalka and Fincke, will also have a busy schedule.

The takeover of the station by the new crew will take nine days. The astronauts will perform spacewalks in late December and in late February.

Sharipov intended to take photographs of his family, CDs and an emblem of the city of Bishkek with him. Chiao, who recently got married, wanted to take his engagement ring, while Shargin wanted to take photographs of his family and friends and a flag of the Russian Space Forces.

Before take off, Sharipov ordered canned mutton with vegetables and a meal of pike-perch in a piquant sauce, borsht, a large quantity of milk, juices and green tea with sugar. Chiao ordered chicken, eggs, canned prunes, curds with nuts and other Russian foodstuff as well as black tea with sugar, milk and confectionery.

The astronauts have chosen Russian designed gray and white space suits, while Chiao took two suits, a gray one and one with gray and grayish blue.