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Soyuz capsule docks with space station ISS
Mar 28, 2009, 13:42 GMT
Washington - A Soyuz capsule with a joint US-Russian crew and a millionaire space tourist successfully docked Saturday with the International Space Station (ISS), US officials reported.
The US space agency NASA said the docking, coming two days after the Soyuz was launched from the Baikonur centre, went without a hitch and was completed at 1305 GMT, nine minutes earlier than scheduled.
The Soyuz brought Russian cosmonaut Gennadi Padalka and his US colleague Michael Barratt - who will stay on the ISS until next October - as well as US millionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi.
He is to return to earth on April 7 along with two current ISS crew members, US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lontchakov.
The Hungarian-born Simonyi, 60, who made his fortune as a software developer, is making his second trip to space as a tourist.
By his own account, Simonyi paid 35 million dollars for this trip into space, some 10 million dollars more than during his first one two years ago.
Simonyi looks to be the last of the space tourists to be allowed on the ISS for the foreseeable future, with the station set to be filled to its maximum capacity of six crew members in May.
Then, a trio of astronauts will join the ISS, with Belgian astronaut Frank de Winne to become the first European Space Agency commander of the ISS.
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