This story was updated at 1:39 p.m. EDT.
The
first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS) arrived at the
orbital laboratory Friday alongside a veteran cosmonaut and Malaysia's first
astronaut to complete a two-day chase aboard their Russian spacecraft.
ISS
Expedition 16 commander Peggy
Whitson, of NASA, made her space station return at about 10:50 a.m. EDT
(1450 GMT) as her Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft docked at the orbital laboratory. Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysian astronaut
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor
accompanied Whitson to the ISS, where the outpost's current three-man crew gave
them a warm welcome.
"The
biggest gift is our friends who are here on time," said cosmonaut Fyodor
Yurchikhin, the station's current Expedition 15 commander. "Everybody is
smiling and happy, so the fun is only about to begin."
Malenchenko, an Expedition 16 flight engineer, commanded
the Soyuz TMA-11's flight as it docked at an Earth-facing berth on the
station's Russian-built Zarya control module while
both spacecraft flew 220 miles (354 kilometers) above Central Asia.
"This
looks just like Darth Vader's ship," said astronaut Julie Payette, serving
as spacecraft communicator at NASA's ISS Mission Control in Houston, Texas,
after seeing views
of the space station from Soyuz cameras.
Crew change ahead
Whitson
and Malenchenko, both veterans of past ISS crews,
are beginning a six-month spaceflight and will replace Yurchikhin and Expedition
15 flight engineer Oleg Kotov on the space station during a nine-day crew swap.
NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson, currently aboard the ISS, will stay on for the
first stage of the Expedition 16 mission.
Yurchikhin
and Kotov are due to land Oct. 21 to complete their own six-month mission to
the space station. Shukor, a trained orthopedic
surgeon who is flying under a commercial agreement between the Malaysian
government and Russia, will spend about nine days performing science
experiments and observing the Earth before returning home with the Expedition
15 crew.
"I
feel very well and I have lots of Russian and American friends up onboard with
me here," said Shukor, who spoke to his father from orbit via
a video link. "I love you very much and when I come back I hope share
my experiences with you and with all the Malaysian people."
Malaysia's
Science, Technology and Innovations minister Jamaludin Jarjis
thanked Russia's Federal Space Agency, NASA and their ISS partners during a
post-docking press conference at Russia's ISS Mission Control.
"Without
your contributions we wouldn't be able to see one of our men in space," Jarjis said. "We are committed to remaining a
permanent member of this [space] community."
Busy six
months in space
Expedition 16 marks
the second flight to the ISS for Whitson and the third for Malenchenko, with
Russian and NASA mission managers touting them as their most experienced ISS
crew.
Both
astronauts spent about 185 days aboard the ISS, Whitson as an Expedition 5
flight engineer in 2002 and Malenchenko as Expedition 7 commander in 2003. Malenchenko
also visited the ISS during NASA's STS-106 shuttle flight in 2000 and is a
veteran commander of Russia's Mir Space Station.
Whitson
said that long-duration experience will come in handy on Expedition 16, during
which her crew hopes to host up to three visiting NASA space shuttle crews,
Europe's first unmanned cargo ship and two automated Russian resupply ships.
"Yuri
and I will both be ready to step in very quickly," Whitson said in
preflight NASA interview. "Which, I think, we’re going to need
because this mission is, a very aggressive mission."
Each of the
NASA shuttle missions -- the first of which is set
to launch Oct. 23 -- will bring a new flight engineer to replace the third slot
on Whitson's crew as well as a major addition to the ISS structure.
The shuttle
Discovery is slated to deliver the Harmony connecting node to the ISS later
this month, with the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory due at the station
in December. A Canadian-built addition to the station's robotic arm and the
first segment of Japan's three-part Kibo laboratory are currently scheduled to
launch in February.
"[W]e
have a very exciting mission planned," Whitson said. "I'm looking
forward to all the new elements that we're going to be able to ad to the
International Space Station."
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