Special report: Russian spaceship lifts off

    MOSCOW, April 1 (Xinhua) -- A Russian spaceship carrying a two-man crew of the International Space Station (ISS) and a Brazilian astronaut docked with the ISS on Saturday morning after hurtling two days in space.

    The Soyuz TMA-8 ship, which streaked into the sky over the Central Asian steppe on Thursday, hooked up with the space station at 8:19 a.m. Moscow time (0419 GMT), the Mission Control outside Moscow said.

    Aboard the vessel were Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Brazilian astronaut Marcus Pontes, who would enter the ISS in several hours after a series of checks.

    Vinogradov and Williams will replace Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and U.S. astronaut William McArthur, who have been working on the station since October. During their six-month mission, they are expected to make four space walks -- two on the Russian program and two on the U.S. program -- and conduct about 50 experiments in space.

    Pontes, Brazil's first astronaut, will carry out a series of scientific experiments during his nine-day stay on the orbiting lab and return with the outgoing ISS crew on April 9. Enditem