A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying U. S., Canadian and Russian astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station early Wednesday, restoring the orbiting lab to six person crew operations for the first time since mid-November.
Canadian Chris Hadfield, Russian Roman Romanenko and American Tom Marshburn, pictured left to right, pose in Kazakhstan prior to their Soyuz lift off. Photo Credit/NASA
Tom Marshburn, a former NASA flight surgeon, Chris Hadfield, a veteran Canadian astronaut; and Roman Romanenko, the son of a Soviet era cosmonaut; docked linked to the station at 9:09 a.m., EST.
The three men lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome inKazakhstanearly Monday on their five month tour of duty.
The newcomers were greeted by the station’s current commander, Kevin Ford, of NASA and two cosmonauts, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin.
Hadfield has trained to move from space station flight engineer to commander in mid-March as Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin depart for Earth.
The new Soyuz crew has trained for 2 ½ years to carry out 130 science experiments and technology demonstrations as well as to maintain the 14-year-old space station.