Soyuz Docks With Space Station (bringing Brazil's first astronaut)

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Soyuz Docks With Space Station

KOROLYOV, Russia, March 31, 2006
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This image made available by NASA-TV shows the Soyuz capsule docked with the international space station, March 31, 2006. (AP Photo/NASA TV)


(AP) A Soyuz capsule docked with the international space station Saturday, bringing Brazil's first astronaut, a new Russian-American crew and a fresh load of supplies, equipment and experiments.

Two days after blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the TMA-8 capsule arrived at the orbiting station and latched on just after 8:19 a.m., guided into place automatically by computers on the capsule and on the station.

Dozens of Brazilian, American and Russian officials fell into hushed silence at Russia's Mission Control Center in Korolyov, outside Moscow, as the capsule neared the station, and then broke into applause when contact was made.

Cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and astronaut Jeffrey Williams, who will replace the current crew for six months on the orbiting station, were joined on the trip by Brazil's first man in space, Marcos C. Pontes, who will return to Earth on April 9.

"Until the very moment that he returns to Earth, the hearts of all Brazilians will be following him," said Raimondo Mussi, a Brazilian space agency official who monitored the docking at Mission Control. "A Brazilian astronaut in space contains a piece of every Brazilian on Earth."


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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/01/tech/main1461804.shtml