New Crew of Three Astronauts Sent to International Space Station
An American and two Russians in a Soyuz capsule left for the International Space Station on Saturday to join the existing crew in the space laboratory.
After leaving from space launch complex in Kazakhstan, the capsule docked at the space station within six hours.
Jeff Williams from NASA and Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin from Russia have joined the crew for a six-month mission. By the end of this mission, American record would have acquired a staggering feat of 534 cumulative days over three missions in space.
The team will be met by Tim Kopra of Expedition 47 from NASA, Yuri Malenchenko from Russian Federal Space Agency and ESA's astronaut Tim Peake. Together they will spend a total of 177 days on ISS to carry out scientific experiments.
Within nine minutes of lifting off from launch station, the Soyuz capsule separated and the flight controllers conveyed that the solar arrays and antennas have been deployed and locked as they should be. "Enjoy yourself, and take very good care of the space station for us," Bill Gerstenmaier, director of space operations at NASA Headquarters, soon after the launch of crew.
As the capsule arrived the space station, Tim Kopra, Tim Peake and Yuri Malenchenko were standing by to welcome them aboard.
Ever since Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov departed from the station to return to Earth on March 1, the station has been with the other three astronauts.
The existing team of Peake, Kopra and Malenchenko will return to Earth on June 5, leaving behind Ovchinin, Williams and Skripochka as the main crew of Expedition 48. The replacement team of Kopra and his crew will include cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Takuya Onishi from Japan and Kate Rubins from NASA, scheduled to depart on June 21.
