First Mission To Space Since Columbia

It's not going to be an easy mission. Two astronauts instead of three. Six months living in confined quarters with no one else around. And it got underway today as a Soyuz TMA-2 spacecraft thundered skyward from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan.

No Third Crewman

NASA's Dr. Ed Lu and Russian Col. Yuri Malenchenko lifted off from Baikonur on schedule Saturday morning, on a mission vital to the very survival of the International Space Station. Their science missions have been drastically pared down, along with the crew. ISS-7 is now a mission to keep the station operative and in good repair - mainly, a maintenance mission.

Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri was supposed to have been part of this crew. But, after the American space shuttle fleet was grounded in the wake of February's Columbia disaster, Kaleri gave up his seat so it could be filled with supplies. Both the Russian space agency and NASA say a two man crew will be much easier to maintain and resupply during this extended mission.

Perfect Launch

"It's a kind of mix of joy, relief and sheer pride," said Lu's fiancee, Christine Romero, after watching the launch. "After the (Columbia) tragedy we've endured, we just feel so proud to be part of this. We are riding on their coattails." While Ms. Romero and Lu's brother watched the launch, none of Malenchenko's friends or relatives attended. In the Russian space program, it's considered bad luck for them to attend a lift-off.

The 130-foot Russian rocket, topped by a space capsule built along the same lines as that which took the first man to space, Yuri Gregarian in 1961, blasted off from the Cosmodrome's Launch Pad One Saturday morning. Nine minutes later, Malenchenko and Lu were in orbit.

Russian flight director Vladimir Solovyov said after the lift-off, "They flew up normally. The parameters of the orbit are perfectly normal. The cosmonauts are feeling well."

See Ya Monday!

It will take the crew of ISS-7 two days to rendesvous with the ISS. They'll spend a week on board with the crew of ISS-6 - Americans Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit and cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin, who have been in space since November. They were supposed to have come home last month, but the Columbia disintegration delayed their return until sometime early next month.

ISS-7 marks a true revolution in the international effort to maintain a human presence in Earth orbit. The crew was supposed to have flown to the station aboard the space shuttle Atlantis. But because of the Columbia tragedy, the Russians stepped up to the plate, offering the Soyuz spacecraft as a launch and recovery vehicle, and promising to keep the ISS supplied until the American space fleet is flying again, perhaps by the end of the year. After a year marked by disagreements between the two countries over the war in Iraq, officials at both countries' space agencies said the new spirit of cooperation will go a long way.

"Basically it came to this: Right now, there is only one ship that can take a crew to the International Space Station. Russia has to do it," said Sergei Gorbunov, spokesman for Rosaviakosmos, the Russian space agency.

At Russian Mission Control, Joel Montalbano, an ISS flight director for NASA, said Saturday's flight was "a tribute to the robustness of the ISS partnership."

"On a day like this, you see the commitment of the international community to pursuing space travel," said NASA deputy director Frederick Gregory at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

FMI: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/station