The International Space Station became the long term home for six astronauts for the first time since mid-September on Friday with the arrival of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three U. S., Russian and European crew members.
The two spacecraft docked at 10:19 a.m., EST, as they flew high above southern Russia.
Newcomers Don Pettit, of NASA, Oleg Kononenko, of Russia, and Andre Kuipers, of The Netherlands were greeted aboard the station by Expedition 30 commander Dan Burbank, of NASA, and Russian flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin.
The families of the new arrivals, who where were launched early Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan, joined top NASA and European space agency officials in Russia’s Mission Control to observe the operation.
Sustained crew operations dropped from six to three astronauts in mid-September in response to the Aug. 24 loss of a Soyuz launcher with a Progress cargo capsule bound for the space station. Soyuz launches were suspended whileRussiainvestigated a third stage failure of the rocked and implemented a recovery plan.
The station resumed six person operations briefly in late November, with the arrival of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying Burbank, Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin for a brief handover session before the last three Expedition 29 astronauts descended to Earth.
The newly constituted six member station crew is prepared for a busy few months.
Scheduled activities include the arrival of the first U. S.commercial re-supply craft, the SpaceX Dragon in February. Russian and European cargo carriers are expected. A Russian spacewalk is planned.
The station crew is watching over or participating in nearly 200 science experiments as well.