The International Space Station (ISS) received three more crewmembers, bringing its total back up to six, after a Soyuz spacecraft successfully docked Thursday.
According to the Associated Press, the Soyuz capsule docked "smoothly" at 0245 GMT, approximately five hours and 45 minutes at after takeoff. The flight was the first trip a Soyuz spacecraft made to the ISS since the Russian Space Agency experienced a loss of communication with an unmanned cargo capsule, resulting in the loss of the ship and everything aboard it.
Joining Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko, and Scott Kelly are Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA's Kjell Lindgren, and Kimiya Yui, of Japan. Lindgren and Yui, who said publicly he was taking sushi with him, are both serving their first ISS tour, the AP noted.
This Sept., Kelly and Kornienko will arrive at six months in space, the halfway point of the historic One Year in Space study. That month, NASA stated in a press release, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and Andreas Mogensen, of the European Space Agency, will join the ISS before other crewmembers leave, pushing the science lab's total above the typical six for 10 days. Morgensen will be Denmark's first astronaut and ISS crewmember.
Per NASA's statement: "The crew members also are scheduled to receive several cargo spacecraft - including the fifth Japanese HTV resupply flight and two Russian Progress resupply missions - each delivering tons of food, fuel, supplies and research. Russian crew members are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk for station maintenance and upgrades in August."
