With their Soyuz spaceship docked at an Earth-facing port on the Russian section of the station, hatches between the vehicles swung open and the second half of the first six-person resident crew floated into the outpost.The hatch-opening also marked the first time all the major partners in the $100 billion station project were represented aboard the outpost, the assembly of which began in late 1998.
"It is an historic day. It's also a very happy day up here. You can't imagine the state of elation that the six of us have right now," Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk said. "We've got incredible potential for success here. This is going to something incredible. You ain't seen nothing yet."
"I congratulate you all for taking the dreams of so many and making them reality," said Joel Montalbano, the director of NASA operations in Russia.
The joined crew also includes Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Roman Romanenko; U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt; Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne and Koichi Wakata of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
"This is a wonderful day, and all the partner astronauts are here," Wakata said. "This is a wonderful laboratory, the ISS, and it's time to utilize the full capability of this wonderful International Space Station."
The newly arrived crew members now are attending a safety briefing and a station orientation.
The crew expansion comes more than a decade after the station's first two building blocks were linked in late 1998. The first three-person crew opened the station for business in November 2000, carrying out what amounted to a six-month shake-down cruise.
The size of resident crews dropped to two for three years after the 2003 Columbia accident. The move was made to conserve supplies while the shuttle fleet was grounded.
The expansion of resident crews to six people is expected to triple the amount of scientific research that can be done on the outpost.
ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge and save the NASA screen grab of the Expedition 20 crew during a welcome ceremony in the Zvezda Service Module on the Russian side of the International Space Station. The crew (left to right) includes Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency; Robert Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency; Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency; NASA astronaut Michael Barratt; Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko. Zvezda, which means "star' in Russian, is a command-and-control module also used as crew quarters and a laboratory. It was added to an embryonic station in July 2000.
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