Expedition 13 Takes Off

The US-Russian-Brazilian crew of Expedition 13 had a succesful launch aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket which took off over Central Asia.

The crew’s mission is to fly to the international space station where they will leave two of the crew members American Jeffrey Williams and Russian Pavel Vinogradov to stay in space for six months. Brazilian crew member Marcos Pontes will only stay in the space station for nine months and return to Earth April 9.

The Soyuz tma 8 is bound to dock at the space station on Saturday. Sixty-five scientific experiments willbe carried out through the duration of the mission.

Expedition 13 is said to be the concrete manifestation of US-Russia cooperation. (Since the Columbia accident, US has been depending on Russia in bringing cargo and humans into space.) Brazil’s part in this mission has also been made possible by their partnership with Russia.

The US-Russian-Brazilian crew of Expedition 13 had a succesful launch aboard the Russian Soyuz rocket which took off over Central Asia.

The crew’s mission is to fly to the international space station where they will leave two of the crew members American Jeffrey Williams and Russian Pavel Vinogradov to stay in space for six months. Brazilian crew member Marcos Pontes will only stay in the space station for nine months and return to Earth April 9.

The Soyuz tma 8 is bound to dock at the space station on Saturday. Sixty-five scientific experiments willbe carried out through the duration of the mission.

Expedition 13 is said to be the concrete manifestation of US-Russia cooperation. (Since the Columbia accident, US has been depending on Russia in bringing cargo and humans into space.) Brazil’s part in this mission has also been made possible by their partnership with Russia.