Live: New crew closes in on ISS

A new crew is closing in on the International Space Station and is scheduled to dock at the outpost at 10:52 a.m. EDT.

With American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Malaysian Shiekh Muszaphar Shukor on board, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is guiding a salt shaker-shaped Soyuz spacecraft toward a docking port on the Earth-facing side of the station's Zarya module.

Zarya is the Russian word for "Dawn." A space tug that also serves as an orbital warehouse, the Zarya module was the first station segment to be launched back on Nov. 20, 1998. The U.S. Unity module was launched and linked up to Zarya during a shuttle mission the following month.

Launched Wednesday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz now is about 18 kilometers behind and below the station. You can watch live NASA TV coverage of the docking here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the link below the image above to launch our NASA TV viewer. Refresh this page for periodic updates.