Russian technicians at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan mated the Soyuz TMA-6 spacecraft to its booster rocket in an integration facility on April 12, 2005 in preparation for the launch April 15 (Kazakhstan time) of cosmonaut Sergei K. Krikalev, Russia's Federal Space Agency Expedition 11 commander; astronaut John L. Phillips, NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer; and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy to the International Space Station (ISS). Krikalev and Phillips will spend six months in space and greet the first Shuttle crew to fly in more than two years when it arrives at the Station, while Vittori spends eight days on the Station under a commercial contract between ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The rocket mating operation occurred on the 44th anniversary of the launch of Yuri Gagarin from the same complex to become the first human in space.
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Keywords: ., 11, 12, 15, 2005, agency, april, baikonur, booster, comma, cosmodrome, cosmonaut, expedition, facility, federal, integration, kazakhstan, krikalev, launch, mated, preparation, rocket, russia, russian, sergei, soyuz, space, spacecraft, technicians, tma-6
