RIO DE JANEIRO, October 6 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Kurguzov) - Brazil's first astronaut will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship in March 2006, the Brazilian Space Agency (BSA) said Thursday.
A BSA spokeswoman said the Russian Federal Space Agency and the BSA were holding talks in Moscow. Astronaut Marcus Pontes will fly to Moscow to familiarize himself with Soyuz life support and operation systems. In 2000, he was certified as an astronaut at NASA's space center in Houston, Texas.
The final agreement on the flight will be signed October 18 when the Brazilian president visits Russia, the spokeswoman said.
