Soyuz Spacecraft Docks at Space Station With New Crew

Another team composed of two cosmonauts from Russia and a single NASA astronaut has successfully docked at the International Space Station on board the Soyuz craft last Saturday for them to commence a space mission at the orbiting lab for over five months. Scott Kelly, the American astronaut, Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri (the two Russians) were welcomed with warm hugs by the current trio onboard the station namely Doug Wheelock (the commander), Shannon Walker (American flight engineer), and Fyodor Yurchikhin (a Russian flight engineer).

At exactly 8:01 PM EDT, the latest Soyuz Mission TMA-01M finally ended its two-day trip from earth. The craft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

The new team will have a very busy mission ahead of them as they will assume command of the station because Yurchikhi, Walker and Wheelock will be homebound by then. They (the new team) will be in charge with the general maintenance of the station, as well as, doing the necessary scientific researches that need to be continued.