Brazilian Astronaut Marcos Pontes Cleared To Fly To ISS

SPACE TRAVEL

AFP file photo of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Marcos Pontes, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 18 October 2005.

Moscow (UPI) Dec 07, 2005
Russian Space Agency medical officials say Brazil's first astronaut, Marcos Pontes, has been cleared to fly to the International Space Station.

Physicians at the Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow and from the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems found Pontes fit for the space mission scheduled for the next spring, Itar-Tass, the official Russian news agency, reported.

The Brazilian will now study the design and systems of the Soyuz spacecraft that will take him to the ISS, as well as learn to speak Russian.

The chief of the Cosmonaut Training Center, Maxim Kharlamov, told Itar-Tass even though everyone has a command of English on board the ISS, situations can arise in space when commands from Earth only come in Russian.

The Soyuz flight with the Brazilian astronaut and Russia's 13th residential crew is scheduled for the end of March.

Source: United Press International

STATION NEWS

Weekend Of Light Duties Ahead Of Busy Science Week

Houston TX (SPX) Dec 02, 2005
In the third month of a six-month mission, the International Space Station Expedition 12 crew worked this week on science experiments, maintenance and the setup of hardware for future activities. After a light duty weekend, Commander Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev began the week with science tasks.

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