News In Brief

Soviet spacecraft prepares for docking with station

A Soviet spacecraft carrying two men and a woman began preparing Wednesday to dock with the orbiting space station Salyut 7. The three cosmonauts, Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Svetlana Savitskaya, and Igor Volk, were launched into space Tuesday night aboard the craft Soyuz T-12.

Western experts said the three were likely to spend a week aboard Salyut 7, joining three male cosmonauts who have been there since February.

Ms. Savitskaya, an engineer, is on a her second space mission, having visited Salyut 7 in August 1982. She is the Soviet Union's second woman cosmonaut.