Russian spaceship docks with Int'l Space Station
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-03 16:37

A Russian spaceship carrying the world's third space tourist Gregory Olsen and two astronauts docked with the International Space Station (ISS) Monday morning.

The Soyuz TMA-7 ship hooked up with the ISS at 9:27 a.m. Moscow time (0527 GMT) after two days of hurtling in space, the Mission Control said.

Olsen and the 12th crew for the ISS -- Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and NASA astronaut William McArthur -- rode aloft aboard the Soyuz Saturday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

With the help of the crew, Olsen, 60, will perform some 10 scientific experiments on the station, including crystal growth experiments in conditions of weightlessness, studies of the response of the human body in weightlessness, and measure of air humidity on Earth surface through spectrum.

Olsen is preceded by American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth, who had spent a few days on the ISS in 2001 and 2002 respectively after paying 20 million US dollars apiece for the tour. Olsen reportedly paid the same price.

After a 10-day tour in space, Olsen will return to Earth with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and US astronaut John Phillips, who have been working on the station since mid-April, in a Soyuz ship that will touch down on Oct. 11 in Kazakhstan's northern steppes.

Krikalev and Phillips have been preparing for their flight back to Earth.

"Krikalev and Phillips were prescribed increased physical exercises on the ergometric bicycle, running board and other training facilities aboard the station" and will continue all "pre-landing" exercises until Oct. 11, Irina Alferova, head of the medical group at the Mission Control, said Sunday.

Russia's space program has been the ISS' lifeline for more than two years, ferrying crews and cargo since the US shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth in 2003. All seven astronauts aboard Columbia perished.

The US shuttle Discovery briefly visited the orbiting lab in July but concerns over the foam insulation on the shuttle's external fuel tank prompted NASA to keep the shuttle fleet grounded.

As the foam snag cast doubts over when US shuttles will be able to fly again, concerns grew for the return of McArthur, who in theory has only a one-way ticket to the ISS.

Russia will stop ferrying NASA astronauts free of charge at theend of the year. The United States has to cut a deal with Russia to get McArthur back home on a Soyuz ship since a US law bans NASA from paying Russia's space agency.

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