SPACE WIRE
US-Russian space team enter International Space Station
MOSCOW (AFP) Apr 28, 2003
A Russian and US astronaut entered the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday after successfully completing the first manned space flight since the Columbia disaster, a Russian mission control spokesman said.

Russian flight commander Yury Malenchenko and US flight engineer Edward Lu entered the ISS at 0717 GMT, just over an hour after their Soyuz rocket docked at the orbiting space station, the spokesman said.

Lu, 39, and Malenchenko, 41, are due to stay aboard the ISS for six months. Their Russian Soyuz TMA-2 rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday.

The two-man team is due to replace the current ISS crew, US astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit and Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin, who were scheduled to return to Earth in March but had their mission extended after the Columbia tragedy.

All US space missions have been grounded since the Columbia shuttle disintegrated and burnt up on entry on February 1, killing all seven crew members and leaving Russia as the only link with the ISS.

The United States and Russia are the biggest partners in the 16-nation venture.

After a week to hand over control of the space station, the outgoing crew will make the journey back to Earth on May 4 in a Soyuz docked at the ISS. Lu and Malenchenko will be replaced by another two-man crew in October.

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