New Crew Members Prepare for Docking

Three new Expedition 24 crew members continued their voyage aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:35 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

Expedition 24 Heads to the Station. Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin executed another rendezvous burn and tested the docking systems of the Soyuz TMA-19 Wednesday to prepare for docking to the aft port of the station’s Zvezda service module at 6:25 p.m. Thursday.

Fellow Expedition 24 crewmates, Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, will welcome them aboard the orbiting complex when the hatches open around 9:25 p.m.

Meanwhile aboard the station, the crew focused on maintenance and science experiment activities Wednesday while awaiting the arrival of their new crewmates.

Skvortsov and Kornienko conducted thermal loop maintenance in the Russian segment of the station and continued outfitting the Rassvet module.

Kornienko also worked with the Rusalka experiment that studies methane and carbon dioxide content in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Caldwell Dyson replaced a pump in the Oxygen Generation Assembly, but its reactivation is not scheduled until Friday to clear the way for the docking of the Soyuz TMA-19. She also worked with the Reaction Self Test experiment that helps monitor the daily effects of living in space.