Three new astronauts
boarded the International Space Station (ISS) amid cheers, hugs, bread and salt
from the outpost's two-man crew early Sunday after the successful docking of a
Russian-built spacecraft.
Russian cosmonaut
Sergei Krikalev, NASA astronaut John Phillips and Italy's Roberto Vittori happily
entered the ISS after two days of cramped spaceflight inside their Soyuz TMA-6
spacecraft.
Krikalev
and Phillips, the crew of ISS Expedition 11, are relieving the space station's
current caretakers - Expedition 10's Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov - who have been living aboard the outpost
since October 2004.
"Thanks for
a great docking and thanks for coming," Sharipov told the arriving astronauts as
their Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS.
Vittori, an
Italian astronaut representing the European Space Agency (ESA), will spend
eight days conducting science experiments while the ISS crews hand over control
of the space station.
During the
rendezvous and docking, the ISS and Soyuz spacecraft passed into the Earth's
shadow, obscuring both vehicles in darkness.
"We are
going into eclipse and it seems the station is disappearing," Krikalev
told Russian flight controllers. "We see the station to the right, but
barely."
Expedition
11's Soyuz TMA-6 capsule docked at the Russian Pirs docking compartment at
10:20 p.m. EDT on April 16 (0220 April 17 GMT), arriving one minute late. At
12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT) today, the three Soyuz astronauts glided into the
space station, the first visitors in six months for Chiao and Sharipov.
"We're glad
to have the Expedition 11 crew on board and look forward to the next week of
hand over activities," Chiao said during a video link with flight controllers
and ISS program officials from Russia,
Italy and the U.S.
Chiao,
Sharipov and Vittori will return to Earth on April 24 after handing control of
the ISS over to the Expedition 11 crew.
A busy hand-over
The five
astronauts aboard the ISS have a busy day ahead of them.
Immediately
after a post-docking conference with flight controllers and space station
officials, the joint-astronaut crew began an 11-hour work day. For Vittori,
that means setting up the experiments he will work with over the next eight
days, while the Expedition 10 and 11 crews will begin unpacking the Soyuz TMA-6
spacecraft.
Krikalev
and Phillips are expected to be the first ISS crew in more than two years to be
on station during a NASA space shuttle mission. The space agency's first two
shuttle flights since the Columbia
accident are scheduled to visit the station during the six-month Expedition 11
increment. The first shuttle flight, NASA's STS-114 mission aboard the
Discovery orbiter, is expected to arrive at the ISS sometime between May 15 and
June 3.
"In a way,
it's a stepping stone in getting back on the track we were on before the Columbia accident,"
Phillips said of the Expedition 11 mission during a preflight interview.
NASA's three
remaining orbiters have been grounded since the loss of Columbia and its crew on Feb. 1, 2003. Since
then, ISS crews have relied on Russia's
robust Soyuz spacecraft to reach the station and return home.
Phillips
and Krikalev will conduct two spacewalks during their mission and receive two
automated cargo shipments aboard Russian Progress spacecraft. They also hope to
receive a third crewmember during the second shuttle flight, STS-121 aboard
Atlantis, during their ISS stay.
ISS veterans
None of the
new ISS astronauts are strangers to the space station.
Krikalev is
setting a series of spaceflight records during Expedition 11, among them
becoming the first Russian cosmonaut to fly six missions, the first astronaut
to visit the ISS three times and - at the end of this flight - the all-time
high for time spent in space (800 days).
Phillips
and Vittori are both making their second trip to the space station, though Expedition
11 marks the first long-duration flight for Phillips, who will serve as the
mission's NASA ISS science officer.
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