The Atlantis spacecraft successfully started in the United States

Today in the USA, the ATLANTIS space shuttle has successfully started from Cape Kanveral, NTV reports. The crew of 7 people, including two Russian astronauts √ Yuri Malenchenko and Boris Marukov √ flying to a new international space station (ISS).

The new international space station is the most grandiose project in the history of astronautics. Its cost is 60 million dollars. Russia, USA, Canada, Great Britain and Japan take part in the creation of the station.

The main goal of the upcoming 11 -day flight is to docking with the International Space Station and its preparation for the reception of the first expedition of long -term stay.

According to Interfax, for Yuri Malenchenko this is not the first flight - he had already flown 126 days and made 2 exits into outer space.

The Atlantis crew also includes the commander Terrence Wilkatt (4th flight), the Scott Oltman pilot (2nd flight) and Daniel Berbank (1st flight) orbits (2nd flight) and Richard Mastrashio (1st flight).

Training of other astronauts, who should also go to the ISS, end in the Russian star town. The flight of two Russian astronauts and one American is scheduled for October 3.

The crew commander Willian Sheffield said in an interview with NTV: "We are finishing our training, now the most important thing is to work out the possibility of emergency situations on how to behave in case of an accident." According to him, the astronauts achieved good results.

The construction of the station is planned to be completed by 2005. 7 crews will be able to work on it at the same time.