Coming and going

Astronaut Leland Melvin, left, watches a water bubble float between him and the camera, showing his image refracted, on space shuttle Atlantis this week. Outside Moscow, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi (above) adjusts his space suit during an exam at Star City Cosmonaut Training Center. Melvin and his shuttle colleagues returned to earth on Friday from a trip to the International Space Station, while Noguchi, US astronaut Timothy J. Creamer and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov are due to take off from Baikonur cosmodrome to the space station on Dec 21.

Reuters