Soyuz Docks At ISS With Three-Man Space Station Crew

Soyuz docks at ISS.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A Russian-made Soyuz craft carrying three astronauts has docked with the International Space Station, putting the crew in place for the imminent arrival of the first ever privately owned cargo ship to the orbiting lab.

The Soyuz eased into position Thursday morning Moscow time over the Mongolian-Kazakh border after a two-day trip that began with the launch from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan.

NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin are set for a four-and-half-month stay in space.

Their arrival comes just two days ahead of the planned launch of the privately owned SpaceX's Dragon Capsule from Cape Canaveral.

The space station is currently occupied by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Holland's Andre Kuipers.

Comments

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

02:21 AM on 05/19/2012

Godspeed Howard Wolowitz! :)

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

07:18 PM on 05/18/2012

...Realizes they forgot to bring the camera.

[Matthew West]

07:36 AM on 05/18/2012

That realy sucks we have to rely on the Russians to get Americans back and forth to the international space station! I hope NASA will not be cut all together by the Obama administration....

[DXM]

06:33 PM on 05/20/2012

It really sucks that George Bush with the consent of the GOP-controlled Congress cancelled the Space Shuttle program and severely underfunded Orion which was to replace it. It's also too bad that you don't seem to bother actually checking the NASA budget numbers when making an easily verifiable claim:

NASA budgets for the last four FY of the Bush administration:
FY 2006: $15.2 billion
FY 2007: $15.9 billion
FY 2008: $17.3 Billion
FY 2009: $17.8 Billion

NASA budget for the first four FY of the Obama administration:
FY 2010: $18.2 billion
FY 2011: $18.4 billion
FY 2012: $17.8 billion (estimated)
FY 2013: $17.7 billion (projected)

A little math quickly shows that President Obama has spent 8.9% more on NASA during his first term than Bush spent in his last term. The public record will also show that Obama's proposed NASA budget this past year was larger than what Congress authorized AND that it has been the GOP who has forced cuts in non-defense spending as the price for raising the debt ceiling last year. So the objective evidence clearly shows that it the GOP that doesn't like funding NASA programs.

[Don Clanton]

06:20 AM on 05/18/2012

I have been contemplating the efficacy of yoga in a non-gravity environment. Imagine headstands with no weight, for an example.

[Gas-Bag]

08:45 PM on 05/17/2012

Four and a half months on the space station would be a mental challenge for me, I really admire these scientists. I hope that the Dragon is successful in its first mission to there.

[jsarets]

07:43 PM on 05/17/2012

SpaceX is GO for launch following the final Launch Readiness Review this afternoon.

The Falcon 9 rocket will be rolled out to the pad this evening at Launch Complex 40.

[eric14]

06:20 PM on 05/17/2012

Once again I offer my admiration and thanks to those making those amazing journeys.

[teacherpat52]

06:56 PM on 05/17/2012

Imagine being on that space station for 4 1/2 months! And it sure isn't anything like Deep Space Nine! Guess I was born a couple hundred years too early...