Soyuz spacecraft to deliver New Year gifts to ISS

STAR CITY. November 26. KAZINFORM The Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft will bring New Year presents to the International Space Station (ISS), commander Dmitry Kondratyev said on Friday. Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

The Soyuz TMA-20, carrying cosmonaut Kondratyev, the U.S. and Italian flight engineers, Catherine Coleman and Paolo Nespoli, is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on December 15. The three astronauts will be onboard the ISS for 152 days.

"We are taking New Year presents along, which our families have prepared for us," Kondratyev told RIA Novosti. "We don't know what's in them, it will be a surprise."

There will be no Christmas tree, however, Kondratyev said.

Soyuz TMA-19, which took Expedition 25's Douglas Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin back to Earth, landed in Kazakhstan earlier on Friday. Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version