Live: Hatches Open, Crews Meet

After opening the hatches that separated them just before 6 a.m., the Expedition 18 crew and spaceflight participant Richard Garriott entered the International Space Station and exchanged hugs and greetings with its three occupants.

The group of six station residents then gathered to receive congratulatory calls from Russian and American space officials and from family members at the Russian mission control center.

"I'm doing great," American astronaut Michael Finke, the commander of Expedition 18, told his wife and three daughters. "I love you from space."

Space tourist Richard Gariott spoke with his father, former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, and loved ones.

"I can fly!" he said.

"Welcome to your new home," Kirk Shireman, NASA's International Space Station deputy program manager, told the new crew.

What's next? A busy day of activity for the two crews.

Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov will begin breifing the new crew on safety and other issues affecting the station.

One issue that's been taken care of: a toilet that broke several days ago has been fixed, Russian space agency representatives said during this morning's news conference.

By about 7 a.m., systems on the newly docked Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft will be deactivated, flight controllers say.

The spacesuits worn by Finke, Lonchakov and Garriott will be aired out and stowed until they are needed again in 10 days. Custom-made seat liners will be moved from one Soyuz to the other.

Garriott's will be transferred from the Soyuz TMA-13 vehicle he arrived on this morning to TMA-12, the one he'll depart in Oct. 23.

Going in the opposite direction is the seat liner for Greg Chamitoff - the Expedition 17 astronaut who will ride shuttle Endeavour home next month. That's a safety precaution in the event the station needs to be evacuated.

The crews will also begin setting up science experiments and transferring equipment from the Soyuz. In all, most won't finish their day and get a chance to sleep until about 4:30 p.m.

Already, station solar arrays that were maneuvered to avoid damage from the docking spacecraft have been repositioned to generate maximum power.

You can read more about Expedition 18 in this press kit. And click on any of this morning's docking images to enlarge them.