A Russian spacecraft carrying Brazil's first astronaut and two new crew members for the International Space Station (ISS) docked at the station Saturday, Russian flight controllers said. The Soyuz spacecraft made its rendezvous with the ISS as scheduled at 0419 GMT after a 50-hour trip from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to mission control outside Moscow. "The manoeuvre took place automatically as planned," said a spokesman for the Russian space traffic control in Korolyov near Moscow, DPA reported. Aboard are Brazilian test pilot Marcos Pontes, 43, and two ISS crew members - Pavel Vinogradov of Russia, the new mission commander, and US Army colonel Jeffrey Williams for NASA. The new arrivals - expedition 13 to the ISS - waited several hours for pressure to equalize between their Soyuz spacecraft and the ISS before gliding over into the station. In line with regulation, the new arrivals were immediately informed of escape routes and emergency plans. Pontes will perform a science programme for his country's space agency before returning back to Earth on April 9 with the outgoing crew, cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and NASA's William McArthur. Vinogradov and Williams are on a six-month mission that includes an intensive science programme of 40 experiments. In July, a US space shuttle is slated to bring German astronaut Thomas Reiter to join them on the ISS.
