KAZAKHSTAN: THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN TO THE LAUNCH OF THE LATEST JOINT RUSSIAN-AMERICAN SPACE MISSION

Record ID: 377053

  • Title: KAZAKHSTAN: THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN TO THE LAUNCH OF THE LATEST JOINT RUSSIAN-AMERICAN SPACE MISSION
  • Date: 30th October 2000
  • Summary: BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN (OCTOBER 31, 2000)REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MCU YURI GIDZENKO, WILLIAM SHEPHERD AND SERGEI KRIKALYOV ENTER ROOM/ORTHODOX PRIEST BLESSES SPACE CREW, SPLASHES HOLY WATER ON THEM 0.21 2. MCU CREW SIGNS SIGNATURE ON DOOR WHERE THEY LIVED 0.45 3. CU WILLIAM SHEPHERD'S SIGNATURE WITH HIS DRAWING OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN
  • Country: Kazakhstan
  • Reuters ID: LVAEV05JR7VE0DZGZ736ZPA3OXC1
  • Story Text: The countdown has begun to the launch of the latest
    joint Russian-American space mission. A three-man crew is only
    hours away from blastoff for what is being seen as a new era
    in space exploration history.



    Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei Krikalyov, and William
    Shepherd will soon be the first inhabitants of the ISS
    (International space station).

    The crew has been preparing four years for their historic
    mission. Now they have only a small wait before blast-off
    from the Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan at 0752 GMT.

    Their launch day began early and was full of ritual.

    An Orthodox priest blessed the crew and splashed them
    with holy water.

    The cosmonauts then signed the doors where they had stayed,
    with Captain William Shepherd leaving a drawing of what will
    be his new home for the next four months.

    Shepherd hugged his wife goodbye and then the crew set off
    for the launch site.

    Their mission will not only be the first step in setting up
    a permanent human outpost in space, but will push the frontier
    of space exploration knowledge and blaze a trail for possible
    ventures to other planets.

    The ISS which the crew will open and help finish
    constructing is a 16-nation project aimed at realising the
    human dream of living in space.

    Costing over $60 billion, the project has brought together
    Brazil, Canada, the European Space Agency, Russia, and the
    United States.

    Hailed as one of humanity's greatest engineering feats, the
    ISS will be the brightest object in the night sky and the only
    artificial heavenly body visible from Earth with the naked
    eye.

    When finished in 2005, it will be seven storeys high, weigh
    418 tonnes and have as much living space as a 747 jumbo jet.

    But for now and in the coming hours, its success rests
    largely on the shoulders of three men: Gidzenko, Krikalyov,
    and Shepherd.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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