BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — A Rus- sian Soyuz craft lit up the starry skies of the southern Kazakh steppe early today as it blasted off to carry a three-man crew for a mission to the international space station that will take in the U.S. shuttle’s farewell voyage.
Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, NASA’s Michael Fossum and Satoshi Furukawa of Japan’s JAXA space agency will spend almost two days squeezed into the cramped Soyuz capsule before docking with the space station, where they will remain until mid-November.
While aboard the station, the team will witness the final mission of the U.S. shuttle, with NASA retiring the 30-year program after Atlantis flies July 8.
The mothballing of the shuttle evokes a palpable sense of melancholy among U.S. space professionals, and a comparable degree of pride among Russians, who will be picking up the slack.
The Associated Press
