MOSCOW, May 29 (Xinhua) -- A
Russian spaceship with three astronauts aboard docked with the International
Space Station (ISS) on Friday, the Mission Control Center outside Moscow said.
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The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft fires its
steering thrusters as it closes in on the International Space Station
(ISS) for docking in this view from aboard the station in this image from
NASA TV May 29, 2009. The Russian spacecraft blasted off on Wednesday on a
mission that will double the permanent crew of the ISS to six for the
first time. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft docked with the ISS at
04:36 p.m. Moscow Time (1236 GMT) in automatic regime, said Valery Lyndin,
spokesman for the Mission Control Center.
The space capsule blasted off from the Baikonur space
center in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
The astronauts, Russian Roman Romanenko, Belgian
Franc De Winneand Canadian Robert Thirskare, are expected to open the hatch and
enter the ISS at around 06:00 p.m. Moscow time (1400 GMT).
The newcomers will join Russian commander Gennady
Padalka, U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt and Japan's Koichi Wakata to form a
six-member permanent crew for the first time.
It was also the first time all five ISS partners --
Russia's Roskosmos, the European Space Agency, Japan's JAXA, U.S. NASA and the
Canadian Space Agency -- are represented at the same time on board the space
station orbiting 350 km above the earth.
During the upcoming six-month mission, the crew will
receive U.S. space shuttles, Russian Progress spacecraft and a Japanese HTV-1
cargo spaceship. It will also conduct two space walks as well as a series of
scientific experiments.
In addition, the Russian astronauts will complete the
docking between Russian small research module and the ISS, which will enable
Russia to conduct much more experiments in space.
Russia, which has borne the brunt of sending crews
and cargos to the ISS since 2003, will double the number of Soyuz launches to
four this year because of the increase in the permanent ISS
crew.
