MISSION CONTROL (Moscow Region), May 29 (RIA Novosti)
- A Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft with members of the 20th Expedition
on board has docked with the International Space Station in an
automated mode, mission control said on Friday.
The Soyuz lifted off from the Baikonur space center on
Wednesday.
The 20th Expedition comprises flight engineer Frank De
Winne from the European Space Agency, Robert Thirsk from the
Canadian Space Agency and Russia's Roman Romanenko.
The astronauts will join the current Expedition 19 crew,
comprising Russian Commander Gennady Padalka, U.S. Flight
Engineer Michael Barratt, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
During the upcoming 180-day mission, the six-member crew
will receive and unload three Russian Progress craft and a
Japanese HTV-1 space freighter, conduct two spacewalks and
carry out a series of scientific experiments.
The head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, Anatoly
Perminov, earlier described the mission as unique, saying that
"representatives of five countries - Russia, the United States,
Canada, Japan and Belgium - will for the first time work at the
station simultaneously."
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