A toy hippo and thirty-two fish join the orbital laboratory
In short: Space exploration often highlights high-tech hardware, but some of its most enduring memories are personal. For Expedition 33/34, a veteran pilot and two first-time flyers carried more than just scientific instruments; they brought a daughter's gift and an aquatic experiment to the edge of orbit.
On October 23, 2012, the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft launched from Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This specific launch site was significant as it marked the first manned flight from that location in 28 years, necessitated by renovations on the historic pad used by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. The mission carried a diverse crew: NASA Flight Engineer Kevin Ford, who was a veteran shuttle pilot, joined Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin for their first spaceflights. The spacecraft was mated to its booster rocket on October 20 prior to liftoff. The launch occurred at 6:51 a.m. EDT on Tuesday.
The mission served as the second half of Expedition 33, joining three crew members who had been in orbit since mid-July. While NASA astronaut Sunita Williams commanded the station, the newcomers were tasked with a five-month stay on the International Space Station. To mark the transition into weightlessness, Commander Novitskiy brought a small toy hippo gifted by his teenage daughter, Yana, to serve as a visual indicator of the spacecraft reaching orbit. The crew docked with the station on Thursday, October 25, at 8:35 a.m. EDT. Akihiko Hoshide, a Japanese astronaut, and Yuri Malenchenko, a Russian cosmonaut, were already present when this mission arrived.
Beyond human cargo, the Soyuz carried 32 medaka fish for an aquatic experiment. These fish were transported in a specialized 'Aquatic Habitat'—delivered on a previous flight—to study how organisms adapt to the absence of gravity. This blend of personal keepsakes and biological research highlights the dual nature of long-term space habitation: maintaining human morale while pushing the boundaries of life sciences. Flight Engineer Kevin Ford described the medaka fish as being larger than guppies during his pre-flight training. The station has hosted over 270 individuals since its first long-term mission began in 2000.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The Expedition 33/34 Soyuz Spacecraft Meets Its Booster Rocket
- Also: Soyuz Spacecraft Launches New US-Russian Crew Toward Space Station
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