New Crew Arrives Safely At International Space Station

By  //  May 29, 2014

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION REPORT

WATCH LIVE: Crew Scheduled To Dock To ISS Station’s Rassvet Module at 9:48 p.m.


ABOVE: The crew arrived at the station’s Rassvet module at 9:48 p.m.

UPDATE: May, 29, 2014, 12 Midnight

The International Space Station has been returned to its full complement of six crew members.

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency joined their Expedition 40 crewmates when the hatches between the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft and the International Space Station opened at 11:52 p.m. EDT.

PREVIOUS POST: May 28, 2014, 4 p.m.

Three new Expedition 40 flight engineers are on their way to the International Space Station following the successful launch of their Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:57 p.m. EDT Wednesday.

The liftoff of the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft marked the start of a six-hour, four-orbit trek to the station for NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, cosmonaut and Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst.

At the time of launch the station was soaring at an altitude of 260 statute miles, just south of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, having passed directly over the Baikonur launch site just two minutes and one second earlier.

The Soyuz is scheduled to dock automatically to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Rassvet Mini-Research Module-1 at 9:48 p.m.  Live NASA Television coverage of the Soyuz approach and docking begins at 9 p.m.

Expedition 40-41-388
At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 40/41 backup crew members Terry Virts of NASA (left), Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency chat in front of a Soyuz simulator May 6 during their final qualification exams for flight.
Terry Virts
Terry Virts

The crew is scheduled to dock to the station’s Rassvet module less than six hours later, at 9:48 p.m. NASA TV coverage of docking begins at 9 p.m.

Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos will greet the new crew when the hatches open at about 11:25 p.m. NASA TV hatch opening coverage begins at 11 p.m.

Wiseman, Suraev and Gerst will remain aboard the station until mid-November. Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev will return to Earth in mid-September, leaving Suraev as Expedition 41 Commander.