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Soyuz docks with station BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 20, 2006; Updated after hatch opening The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft docked with the international space station early today, bringing a new commander and flight engineer to the outpost along with space tourist Anousheh Ansari. With smiles, hugs and handshakes, flight engineer Jeff Williams, Thomas Reiter and Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov welcomed Ansari, Expedition 14 commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin aboard the station to the congratulations of friends and family members gathered at the Russian flight control center near Moscow. "Michael, Misha and Anousheh, congratulations on a beautiful launch and a successful docking," Ansari's husband, Hamid, radioed in accented English. "Anousheh, you made the whole world (look) at you." "Thank you, I wouldn't be here without you," replied Anousheh, wearing a bright yellow shirt with a black Ansari X-Prize baseball cap. "Now we all need to know how to get there," joked Hamid. "I'm working on it!" Anousheh said. "It was a smooth ride." "Great!" With Tyurin at the controls, the Soyuz TMA-9 capsule docked at the aft port of the Russian Zvezda command module at 1:21 a.m. after a two-day orbital chase that began with launch early Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Three hours later, after extensive leak checks to ensure a tight seal, Williams opened a final hatch and the Soyuz fliers floated into the Zvezda module and gathered for a brief teleconference with Moscow. "You all look terrific today," Lopez-Alegria's wife, Daria, radioed. "It's so good to see you guys. Have a great time up there." "Hi, daddy," Lopez-Alegria's young son called. "I guess I should say hello. And, well, that's all, I guess." Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's director of manned spaceflight, said "it's great to see all of you in orbit. I can't think of a better place for you all to be. Enjoy this week, it'll go by quickly. Have a good handover and we'll see some of you back here soon." Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will replace outgoing Expedition 13 commander Vinogradov and Williams, who were launched to the space station last March aboard Soyuz TMA-8. Vinodradov, Williams and Ansari, a telecommunications entrepreneur who is believed to have paid the Russian space agency some $20 million to become history's fourth space tourist, are scheduled to return to Earth Sept. 28 aboard the TMA-8 spacecraft. Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut who joined the Expedition 13 crew in July after launch aboard the shuttle Discovery, will remain aboard the lab complex as a member of the Expedition 14 crew until December. He will be replaced by Sunita Williams, who is scheduled for launch aboard shuttle Discovery Dec. 14. At a post-docking news conference, a senior Russian space manager downplayed problems Monday that knocked the station's Elektron oxygen generation out of action, saying two backup oxygen sources are available and "we're not worried about a lack of oxygen aboard the space station." Said Gerstenmaier, "I'd like to congratulate Expedition 13 for a great expedition and I look forward to a very exciting Expedition 14."
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The Hubble Space Telescope has become astronomy's crown jewel for knowledge and discovery. The great observatory was placed high above Earth following its launch aboard space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. The astronauts of STS-31 recount their mission in this post-flight film presentation.
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VIDEO:
EXPEDITION 14 BLASTS OFF ABOARD SOYUZ ROCKET 