Article Posted on : - Apr 07, 2011

The Soyuz TMA-21 is pictured minutes away from docking to the station's Poisk module. A NASA TV photo

MOSCOW (BNS): The Soyuz TMA-21 ‘Gagarin’ carrying three astronauts arrived at the International Space Station early Thursday morning Moscow time.

The spacecraft, launched on April 5 by a Soyuz-FG rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome, successfully docked with the ISS’s Poisk module at 03.09 Moscow time Thursday (2309 GMT Wednesday), federal space agency Roscosmos said.

The two Russian cosmonauts, Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrei Borisenko, and NASA astronaut Ronald Garan as part of the expedition 27 crew were welcomed aboard for a crew greeting ceremony and a mandatory safety orientation.

The new team members joined cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratiev, ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and NASA’s Catherine Colman already present at the orbital laboratory.

The crew, during their five months of stay, will face a long enough list of knotty jobs, including the docking and unloading of three Progress cargo spacecraft and joint activities with the crews of two last US space shuttle flights – Endeavour that is due to blast off April 19 and Atlantis, whose journey into orbit has been scheduled for June.

The resident crew will also make a spacewalk to service the Russian segment of the ISS, Roscosmos said.