spacetoday.net: Soyuz launched to ISS

Posted: Sat, Oct 18, 2003, 8:47 AM ET (1247 GMT)
Soyuz launch (Energia file photo)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a new crew for the International Space Station lifted off early Saturday. The Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft launched from Baikonur on a Soyuz rocket at 1:38 am EDT (0538 GMT, 11:38 am local time) and entered orbit nine minutes later. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 3:16 am EDT (0716 GMT) Monday. On board the Soyuz TMA-3 is the Expedition 8 crew of Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and British-born US astronaut Michael Foale, as well as visiting Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque, who will spend a week on the station. Foale and Kaleri will relieve the Expedition 7 crew of Ed Lu and Yuri Malenchenko, who have been on the station for six months. Lu, Malenchenko, and Duque will leave the station on October 27 in the Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft currently docked to the station. Foale and Kaleri will spend six months on the station and are scheduled to perform one spacewalk, according to RIA Novosti.