Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Tourist launched aboard replacement station lifeboat

Tourist launched aboard replacement station lifeboat
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: April 25, 2002

The three-man crew arrives at the launch pad to board Soyuz. Photo: Energia

A Russian rocket carrying South African space tourist Mark Shuttleworth, Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori and commander Yuri Gidzenko blasted off and streaked into orbit today on a flight to deliver a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the international space station.

Liftoff from Yuri Gagarin's launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodome in Kazakstan occurred on time at 2:27 a.m. EDT. Video from inside the spacecraft during ascent showed Shuttleworth and his crewmates smiling and waving at the cockpit camera as they rocketed away. Eight-and-a-half minutes after launch, the Soyuz spacecraft slipped into orbit and a few moments later, its main antennas and solar arrays deployed as planned. There were no problems of any significance.

If all goes well, Gidzenko will guide the Soyuz spacecraft to a docking at an Earth-facing port on the space station's Zarya module around 4 a.m. Saturday. A detailed mission overview is available here.

Apollo 12 tribute DVD set

New! Featuring the jovial crew of Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean, the Apollo 12 mission was struck by lightning shortly after liftoff but proceeded on the second successful exploration voyage to the lunar surface. This three-disc DVD brings the mission to life with extraordinary detail.

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Fallen Heroes special patch

This special 12-inch embroidered patch commemorates the U.S. astronauts who made the ultimate sacrifice, honoring the crews of Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia.

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Women in Space

Women of Space: Cool Careers on the Final Frontier is for girls, young women, and anyone else interested in learning about exciting careers in space exploration. Includes CD-ROM.

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Mars rover poster

This new poster features some of the best pictures from NASA's amazing Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

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On to Mars

A wide variety of papers presented at the first four years of the Mars Society's annual conference are collected together in this volume.

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Current Shuttle Mission Patch

The official embroidered patch for shuttle Endeavour's flight to finish building Japanese section of the space station.

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Hubble Patch

The official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase.

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Ares Patch

The Ares Project will develop two new rockets to launch astronauts back to the Moon under NASA's Vision for Exploration. The Ares 1 will employ a single space shuttle solid rocket booster to loft the Orion crew capsule. The gigantic Ares 5 will haul the equipment and cargo needed for such lunar voyages. This is the Ares emblem.

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Project Orion

The Orion crew exploration vehicle is NASA's first new human spacecraft developed since the space shuttle a quarter-century earlier. The capsule is one of the key elements of returning astronauts to the Moon.

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Fallen Heroes Patch Collection

The official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store.

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