South Korea’s first astronaut, Yi So-yeon, blasted off into space on Tuesday, prompting her mother, apparently overwhelmed by the occasion, to scream and fall to the ground. In another historic first, one of her fellow cosmonauts, Sergei Volkov, followed in the footsteps of his father, celebrated cosmonaut Alexander Volkov.
Brazil’s first astronaut, Marcos Pontes, was launched into space aboard a Soyuz space craft from the Russian base at Baikonur in Kazakhstan early on Thursday along with his Russian and United States colleagues. The Soyuz FG rocket took off at 2.30am GMT on its way to the International Space Station with Pontes, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams aboard.
No image available
/ 9 November 2005
Europe’s first mission to Venus was successfully launched on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and emitted its first signal at the start of its 163-day journey to the turbulent planet. Venus Express will explore the unusual stormy atmosphere and runaway global warming on Venus.
A Soyuz rocket carrying United States millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a Russian-American crew lifted off on Saturday from the Central Asian steppes, launching the world’s third space tourist on a two-day journey to the international space station. The rocket streaked into the blue sky with an ear-splitting blast.
Forget images of germ-free processed space rations. The crew of the international space station will now be able to feast on a range of Italian delicacies, Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori revealed in Kazakhstan on Thursday as he prepares to blast off. "One of the particularities of this mission is that we’ll be taking Italian food with us," he said.
A Soyuz rocket carrying United States astronaut Edward Michael Fincke, Dutchman Andre Kuipers and Russia’s Gennady Padalka blasted off for the International Space Station early on Monday. The rocket successfully entered orbit nine minutes after taking off from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:19am.