The three men poised to ride to space tonight at 9:30 p.m. EST (Thursday morning in Kazakhstan) have already experienced several of the traditions involved in launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome. They signed a door in the Cosmonaut Hotel in the town that adjoins the Russian-run space complex before boarding a bus in the middle of the night that would take them onto the base. The two men in the new International Space Station crew, American Jeff Williams and Pavel Vinogradov, grinned and waved from the bus, inspiring some of those watching to shed tears. Short-time visitor Marcos Pontes is also due to fly with them tonight. He's the first Brazilian astronaut. All three donned spacesuits and underwent checks at the processing facility on the base in the Kazakh desert. Mike Fincke, a previous space station resident and backup crew member, strapped a watch onto Williams' arm.
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