main page newsspace newssoyuz tma-18 with a new crew docked with the iss.

Soyuz TMA-18 with a new crew docked with the ISS.. / April 5, 2010 /

The operation went normally, to the applause of the audience in the MCC relatives of astronauts and a few journalists, said RIA Novosti. Transient hatches between the spacecraft and the station will be open after leak testing, said Interfax. After that, the crew of the Union "(Commander Alexander Skvortsov, and flight engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson) goes on board the ISS and will join working on it since December 2009 cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, coition Noguchi and Timothy Creamer. Thus, the crew of the 23rd expedition to the ISS will increase to six people. In this the first time in a long time on the ISS will be orbiting just three Russian cosmonauts. Furthermore, now the Russian segment of the station are occupied all four ships available docking ports.

During the semi-orbital mission the crew of the Soyuz TMA-18 to take three shuttle and three cargo spacecraft «Progress M» and carry out two spacewalks from the U.S. and Russian segments of the station. In addition, the Russians have to dock and integrated into the station module «Dawn» (MIM-1).

Print version