On Monday, a Russian spacecraft launched a three-man crew to the International Space Station, securing its short-term future. Three days earlier, NASA reported progress on returning the space shuttle to service, improving the longer-term prospects of the ISS.
Of the Soyuz crew, Dutchman André Kuipers will spend just eight days on board, before returning with the ISS’s current crew of two. Russian Gennady Padalka and American Edward Michael Fincke will stay behind on the ISS to hold the fort for six months.
Three Soyuz missions have kept the space station ticking over since the loss of the shuttle Columbia on…
