Russian Spacecraft Soyuz Docks with ISS

Marcos Pontes, the first Brazilian astronaut docked at the station on Saturday, dedicating his flight to the memory of Brazilian inventor and aviator Alberto Santos Dumont. Pontes, 43, is a father of two whose interests range from weightlifting to painting is an air force lieutenant colonel.

Brazil’s Marcos Pontes, accompanied by two new crew members, Russian Cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams, for the International Space Station (ISS), landed at the orbiting station two days after banged off from Earth, in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Saturday, Russian flight controllers said.

A big Applause and tears broke out at Mission Control Centre in Korolyov outside Moscow as the capsule made contact as scheduled at 6.19am after a 50-hour trip from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The first Brazilian astronaut, Pontes in space floated into the international space station with his country’s flag and a cheerful smile Yesterday, accompanied by his Russian and American crewmates.

After an incommodious two-day journey in a Russian-built Soyuz capsule American Jeffrey Williams, Russian Pavel Vinogradov and Brazilian Marcos Pontes entered the station. The TMA-8 capsule, bolted with the station about 400 kilometers above the Earth yesterday morning, guided into place automatically by computers. The Soyuz spacecraft endures the responsibility for shipping crew and supplies to the station.

Afterwards the air locks opened and the crew greeted the two men who have controlled the station for six months, a Mission Control announcer uttered “This is the international space station.” Many U.S., Brazilian, and Russian space officials at Mission Control watched on a big screen as the outgoing team of American Bill McArthur and Russian Valery Tokarev welcomed the newcomers aboard. The first question asked by Tokarev when the hatch was opened was "Is Marcos alright?" Within seconds a gleeful Marcos Pontes appeared flying the Brazilian flag.

Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams who have started their six-month tour of duty that includes an intensive science programme of 40 experiments, will replace the current crew for six months on the orbiting station, while for Pontes, the trip will be a lot shorter. He will be returning to Earth on April 9 with the outgoing crew. Pontes will carry out a science programme for his country’s space agency before returning back to Earth.

As per reported by NASA, two spacewalks are planned outside the station for construction and maintenance tasks - one by Williams and Reiter in US spacesuits and the other by Vinogradov and Williams in Russian spacesuits.

The station which is already a home to a group of snails who are used in experiments on the effects of zero gravity on behavior, the new crew brought an addition for the station’s "zoo corner", that includes a delivery of worms which will be used to test organism regeneration in the weightless environment of space.

The newcomers have also brought with themselves: a Brazilian football jersey by Pontes, to support his country’s team for this summer’s World Cup in Germany.

Vinogradov is expected to use a gold-plated club to drive a golf ball into a four-year Earth orbit in a tribute to the golf strokes made on the moon in 1971 by NASA astronaut Alan Shepard.

A gift from the Russian orthodox patriarchy, a golden cross is also brought to be used in Easter celebrations on board the station.

American William McArthur who, along with Russian Valery Tokarev, has been on the station since October said, “It’s certainly a treat,” he added, “It seems like it was just a week ago that Jeff and I were training together at Baikonur.”