The Russian space carrier lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on April 7 delivering the 15th ISS expedition, consisting of Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, both from Russia, and the fifth space tourist, Hungarian-born U.S. software engineer Charles Simonyi.
Simonyi is a trained pilot in multi-engine aircraft with current licenses in jets and helicopters and more than 2,000 hours of flying time under his belt. Ahead of his orbital spaceflight scientific mission, he received extensive training at Russia's Gagarin Center.
He will be in space for 13 days and during his stay on the ISS will run a series of biomedical experiments returning back to the Earth with the 14th ISS expedition.
Yurchikhin and Kotov plan to spend 189 days at the station and will conduct three spacewalks, one in U.S.-made spacesuits and the other two in Russian-made outfits.
After the spaceship docked and the crew entered the station, Simonyi using zero gravity turned upside down and greeted in Russian all those in attendance at the Russian Mission Control Center in the Moscow Region.
The scientist brought worms to the station as part of his scientific experiments to see how they regenerate cut off segments of their bodies under conditions of zero gravity.