A Successful Linkup With Space Station

A Soyuz spaceship carrying a U.S.-Russian crew docked successfully at the orbiting international space station Monday, boosting the spirits of space officials from both countries and thrilling relatives of U.S. astronaut Edward Lu.

“I feel so happy and so proud,” said Snowlily Lu of Fremont, Calif., the U.S. astronaut’s mother, after she watched the linkup on a giant video screen at Mission Control just outside Moscow. “Everyone worked for this goal, and now we saw such a successful result.”

Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko spent 90 minutes checking that all seals were tight, then opened the hatches of the Soyuz and floated into the station to hug members of the current three-man crew.

“It has become so big and beautiful,” remarked Malenchenko, who took a spacewalk with Lu in 2000 as part of work to expand the station, which remains only partly finished. “We are very glad to be here and very glad to see our friends. Thanks to everyone for giving us these opportunities.”

Christine Romero, a Houston marketing manager who became engaged to Lu on this trip to Russia, said she felt “extremely proud.”

“Everyone is proud not just for what Ed is doing but for NASA and the international space station and for the space program as a whole, especially after Columbia,” she said. “It’s amazing ....This is one of the most incredible experiences in a lifetime. I’m here. Along with getting engaged, how much better can it be?”

The Soyuz flight, which blasted off Saturday and orbited the Earth 33 times before docking, is the first mission to the station since the breakup of the space shuttle Columbia on reentry in February.

With the grounding of the U.S. shuttle fleet after the Columbia disaster -- which killed all seven crew members-- Soyuz craft are the only vehicles available to ferry crews to and from the station.

Americans Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit and Russian Nikolai Budarin, who have been at the station since November, will return to Earth on Saturday in another Soyuz spaceship that was already docked there as an escape craft. The trip will be the first return to Earth by U.S. astronauts in a Soyuz.

During the hand-over, the crew members who arrived Monday will be briefed on the station’s operation, and they will give a refresher course on handling the Soyuz to those who will ride it down.

Lu, 39, and Malenchenko, 41, are scheduled to be at the station until October.

Monday’s automatic docking appeared to go smoothly. The audience of officials and family members at Russia’s Mission Control burst into applause after it succeeded and again when the Soyuz crew emerged into the station and hugged its crew.

The crew arriving at the station brought along a few small gifts for those already on board, and they will hold a party celebrating Budarin’s 50th birthday today. The party is also to honor the recent birthday of Pettit, who turned 48 on April 20.

The descent of those ending their tour will be the first return to Earth by the latest Soyuz model.

The Soyuz TMA-1 capsule, which includes seats able to carry taller crew members than earlier models, has been technologically upgraded, and the Soyuz generally has an excellent safety record.

But Pyotr Klimuk, chief of the Russian cosmonaut training center, said a technically flawless return is not a sure thing.

“We were not worried about this docking, but we were of course anxious because the TMA is still a new spacecraft, and it was to do only its second docking,” he said.

“Now, we will wait for the landing of the Soyuz TMA-1. We may expect some technical problems there because this will be the first landing of this type of spacecraft.”

Frederick Gregory -- the deputy administrator of NASA, who was in Russia for the hand-over -- described Monday’s maneuver as a “beautiful docking.”

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Sergei L. Loiko of The Times’ Moscow bureau contributed to this report.