Expedition Crew Reaches Orbit
Update for 12:21 a.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 18, 2006: The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft and crew are safely in orbit. The spacecraft has deployed antenna and solar arrays and its altitude will be raised systematically over the next two days to place it in near proximity to the International Space Station, with which it will dock on Sept. 20.
Update for 12:17 a.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 18, 2006: The Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft carrying the International Space Station's next crew and the world's first space tourist blasted into space on time at 12:09 a.m. EDT.
Update for 11:38 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 17, 2006: Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin and space tourist Anousheh Ansari wrapped up their final medical checkups today before suiting up in the Sokol suits that they will wear during the Soyuz launch. The three arrived at the Soyuz launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:28 pm EDT, where they took time to say farewells and take photographs before entering the Soyuz spacecraft.
Update for 6:00 a.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 17, 2006: Two astronauts and one space tourist are preparing to launch toward the International Space Station (ISS) in September to relieve the orbital laboratory's current caretakers. ISS Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, a NASA astronaut, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin of Russia's Federal Space Agency are counting down towards a planned Sept. 18 space shot from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. U.S. entreprener Anousheh Ansari will join the two astronauts aboard the Russian-built Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft that will ferry the trio to the ISS. Ansari was the backup for Japanese businessman Daisuke "Dice-K" Enomoto, who planned to pay $20 million for a 10-day roundtrip to the ISS as result of a deal brokered with Russia's space agency by the U.S. firm Space Adventures. But Enomoto failed a final medical test, prompting Ansari to go in his place. Ansari will be the fourth paying visitor to the ISS. The mission will launch at 12:09 a.m. EDT (0409 GMT) on Sept. 18. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will relieve Expedition 13 commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer Jeffrey Williams, who have served aboard the ISS since their orbital arrival on April 1. A third ISS crewmember - European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter - will stay aboard the station and join the Expedition 14 team. Waiting to take Reiter's place aboard the ISS is NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who will join the Expedition 14 crew and stay on for part of the Expedition 15 mission to follow. Williams, who will make her first spaceflight with the Expedition 14 mission, is set to launch aboard Discovery's STS-116 mission to relieve Reiter. For more information about Expedition 14 see our archive of story links below, or visit NASA's mission-dedicated Web page by clicking here.
Anousheh Ansari

 Gestern um 06:09 Uhr Uhr MESZ startete vom kasachischen Weltraumbahnhof Baiqongyr eine Raumkapsel vom Typ Sojus TMA-9 – an Bord der russische Kosmonaut Michail Wladislawowitsch Tjurin, der US-Astronaut Michael Eladio Lopez-Alegria und die erste Touristin im Weltall, Anousheh Ansari.

Die beiden Männer werden zwei Besatzungsmitglieder auf der Internationalen Raumstation ISS ersetzen, die am 27. September mit Ansari zur Erde zurückfliegen werden. Eigentlich sollte es schon vor fünf Tagen losgehen, allerdings wurde der Start verschoben, weil es beim Start der Raumfähre Atlantis zu Verzögerungen gekommen war.

Die 40-jährige Ansari erfüllt sich mit dem Flug einen Kindheitstraum. Allerdings ist sie nicht nur zum Vergnügen im Weltall unterwegs. Sie führt auch  vier medizinische und biologische Experimente zu Blutanalysen und Muskelschwund an Bord der Sojus-Kapsel und in der ISS durch.