Posted on 04/09/2007 2:15:35 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
KOROLYOV, Russia - A Russian-built Soyuz capsule docked at the international space station late Monday, two days after blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome with U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi and two Russian cosmonauts aboard.
Once the capsule is secured to the station, it will take roughly two hours before the Soyuz crew are able to open the air locks and greet face-to-face the station's current crew — Russian Mikhail Tyurin and American astronauts Miguel Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams.
Simonyi shelled out $20-25 million to be the world's fifth paying private space traveler.
The arrival of a new crew is always a happy event, and this time the resident crew is getting an extra treat — the gourmet dinner brought by Simonyi.
The menu, including quail marinated in wine, was selected by Simonyi's friend Martha Stewart, the American tastemaker and home decoration tycoon. Stewart was on hand at Baikonur for the rocket's launch Saturday, but it was not clear if she would be at Russian Mission Control in Korolyov, on Moscow's outskirts, to watch the docking.
The dinner is to be served Thursday, which Russia marks as Cosmonauts' Day, the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first manned space flight in 1961.
The crew members already aboard the station are Russian Mikhail Tyurin and American astronauts Miguel Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams. Tyurin, Lopez-Alegria and Simonyi are to return to Earth on April 20, riding the Soyuz down to a landing in Kazakhstan's vast steppes.
Flares are launched around Soyuz TMA-10 booster rocket to warn about the undocking of service and supply towers from the rocket just minutes before its start from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Saturday, April 7, 2007. A Russian rocket carrying U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts blasted off late Saturday from the Baikonur cosmodrome en route to the international space station. (AP Photo)
Spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi of the U.S. is seen through the hatch of the Russian Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft after docking with the International Space Station in this televised view from NASA TV April 9, 2007. REUTERS/NASA TV (United States)
Excuse me Sir, but , do you have any grey poupon?
In this image made from NASA-TV, front row, from left: Fyodor Yurchikhin, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, and U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi, and back row from left: Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin, and Flight Engineer Sunita Williams speak to Mission Control after the Russian-built Soyuz capsule docked at the international space station Monday, April 9, 2007. (AP Photo/NASA TV)
Sure would suck to get food poisoning up there.
Either they are in weightlessness or someone needs some static-guard in her hair.
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