Spacecraft with Russo-French Exhibition Docks with ISS

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Spacecraft with Russo-French Exhibition Docks with ISS

Interfax - A Soyuz TM-33 spaceship with a regular expedition on board, launched from Baikonur on October 21, docked with the International Space Station at 2:44 p.m. Moscow time on Tuesday.

Docking was performed in automatic mode, and the expedition will stay on the ISS for eight days. It will return to the Earth at about 8:00 a.m. Moscow time on October 31.

The current crew is composed of Commander Viktor Afanasyev, first flight engineer Claudie Haignere of France, and second fight engineer Konstanin Kozeyev.

The main task of the expedition is to bring a new Soyuz TM rescue ship to the ISS to replace the old one, whose service life has expired, and to carry out a series of scientific experiments under the Andromeda program, developed by the French space agency.

Afanasyev and Kozeyev are expected to do a large amount of work aboard the ISS to outfit the Russian modules with additional equipment and to perform scheduled maintenance. They will also help the long- duration crew currently working aboard the ISS, which includes Frank Culbertson, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin.

Claudie Haignere is expected to carry out a large research program, based on medical and biological experiments. She will also conduct a series of geophysical and astro-physical experiments.

The Aquarius experiment is among the most original to be carried out during the flight. It involves studying the development of embryos in animals, mostly frogs and salamanders, in zero-gravity conditions. Haignere will also study the Earth's atmosphere, namely the influence of aerosols on the formation of clouds. She will also take pictures of zones that are turning into deserts and other environmentally problematic areas of our planet.