spacetoday.net: Soyuz docks with ISS

Posted: Mon, Apr 28, 2003, 2:08 PM ET (1808 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-2 docked to ISS (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying the two-man Expedition Seven crew successfully docked with the International Space Station early Monday. The Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft docked at the nadir port on the Zarya module at 1:56 am EDT (0556 GMT) Monday, two days after the spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur. Hatches between the Soyuz and station opened 90 minutes after docking, and the two crews exchanged greetings. Yuri Malenchenko and Ed Lu, the two Expedition Seven crew members, will share the station for nearly a week with the outgoing Expedition Six crew of Kenneth Bowersox, Donald Pettit, and Nikolai Budarin. The Expedition Six crew will depart the station on May 3, returning to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft that has been docked to ISS for the last six months. Malenchenko and Lu will remain on the station for six months, and will likely be replaced by another two-man crew launched on a Soyuz. The ISS partner nations plan to use the Soyuz taxi flights to exchange crews until the space shuttle returns to service.