New Crew Arrives at Space Station

By Nancy Atkinson - May 17, 2012 at 2:11 PM UTC | Missions

The crew aboard the International Space Station is now back to a compliment of six. New Expedition 31 crew members Gennady Padalka, Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin docked and have now been welcomed on board the ISS after the hatches opened Thursday at 08:10 UTC (4:10 a.m. EDT). They docked to the Poisk module at 4:36 UTC (12:36 a.m. EDT) after a two day journey that began in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft. While they'll be in space for about six months, the new crew members will get right to work preparing for the arrival of the first commercial cargo craft to the ISS. SpaceX's Dragon is scheduled to launch at 08:55 UTC (4:55 a.m. EDT) this Saturday, May 19, with the Canadarm2 grappling Dragon on May 22, berthing it to the Harmony node.