Russian Soyuz TM-32 Spaceship To Dock With International Space Station On Monday

At 12:07, Moscow time, on Monday the Russian spaceship Soyuz TM-32 will dock with the International Space Station, the RIA Novosti was told at the Russian Mission Control Center. Soyuz TM-32 started off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on April 28. "Docking will be done in unmanned mode", said the Mission Control Center. In case auto fails, manual control will be assumed by ship commander Talgat Musabaev, who has been on two space missions. He will be helped by flight engineer Yuri Baturin, for whom it will be a second travel into space. On the first Russian visiting crew to the International Space Station is the first space tourist Dennis Tito of the United States. He has undergone pre-flight training at the Russian space center in the Star City near Moscow. In this flight he bears responsibilities for communication with the earth and ensurance of flight navigation. Businessman Dennis Tito, 60, has graduated from the space research university and for 5 years participated in developing spacecraft for planetary study of the Solar System. Specialists at the Mission Control Center report that Dennis Tito has paid 20 million dollars for his participation in this space mission. "I'm happy that the dream of my youth, space travel, has coming true. It emerged when I heard of the first-ever space flight by Yuri Gagarin", said Tito before take-off. The goal of a short-term /8 days/ visiting expedition to the International Space Station by cosmonauts and hiker Dennis Tito is to replace the rescue ship Soyuz TM-31 /it has been part of the ISS cluster since November 2. 2000 and its service life is expiring/ by a new ship, Soyuz TM-32 /in it the expedition will reach the ISS/. The rescue ship is designed for emergency evacuation of the ISS stay-in crew in case of an unforeseen situation emerging in orbit. The first visiting expedition will get back to the earth aboard the Soyuz TM-31 ship on May 6.