Russia's Soyuz docks with International Space Station

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 20, 2003

Russia's Soyuz docks with International Space Station

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The Russian Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft carrying a three-member crew docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, two days after blasting off from the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The docking took place automatically as planned at 11:16 a.m. Moscow time (0716 GMT), the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Aboard the spacecraft are Russian astronaut Alexander Kaleri, NASA astronaut Michael Foale and Spanish Pedro Duque from the European Space Agency (ESA).

Kaleri and Foale will work on the orbiting space outpost for 200 days while Duque is scheduled to stay there for only 8 days before returning to the Earth aboard another Soyuz on Oct. 28.

The Spaniard will fly back together with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Edward Lu, who have been working on the ISS since late April.

The new mission will conduct some experiments and make the first space walk after the US Columbia space shuttle was disintegrated on Feb. 1.

They are also going to prepare for the docking between the ISS and the European cargo spaceship scheduled to be launched next year.

During his 8-day stay in ISS, Duque will conduct a series of experiments and hold living talks with Spanish children.

It was the second manned space launch by Russia from the Baikonur space center since the US shuttle program was grounded following the Columbia disaster, which killed all the seven crew on board.

The 16-nation floating space hub used to rely heavily on US shuttle flights. But after the Columbia disaster, Russian Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships became the sole means of transport to the space station.

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