With Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko at the controls, the Soyuz is scheduled to dock at the station at 8:36 a.m. Flying with Romanenko: Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency and Robert Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency.
Awaiting their arrival: Station skipper Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency, U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt and Koichi Wakata of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Hatches between the station and the Soyuz will swing open at 9:45 a.m., marking the first time all major partners in the $100 billion station project have simultaneously been represented in orbit.
"I think it's a great way to kick off six-person crews," said NASA deputy station program manager Kirk Shireman. "It's a very important day to mark all partners onboard."
You can watch the historic link-up live here in The Flame Trench starting at 8 a.m. Simply click the NASA TV box on the righthand side of this page to launch our NASA TV viewer, and be sure to refresh this page for periodic updates.
The hatch-opening will increase to six the size of resident crews for the first time since the Expedition 1 crew opened the outpost for business in November 2000. The expansion will triple the amount of time available for scientific research at the station.
Now onboard the station (left to right):
Michael Barratt
Role: Flight Engineer
Age: 50
Hometown: Camas, Washington.
Family: Wife, Michelle; five children.
Education: Bachelor's degree in Zoology, University of Washington, 1981; M.D., Northwestern University, 1985. Completed three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University in 1988; completed Chief Residency year at Veterans Administration Lakeside Hospital in Chicago in 1989; completed residency and Master's program in aerospace medicine, Wright State University, 1991.
Experience: First space flight.
Cool fact: Served as lead flight surgeon for the Expedition 1 crew during their training at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.
Gennady Padalka
Role: Commander
Military rank: Colonel, Russian Air Force
Age: 50
Hometown: Krasnodar, Russia.
Family: Wife, Irina; three children
Education: Graduated from Eisk Military Aviation College in 1979; attended UNESCO International Center of Instruction Systems, where he was an engineer-ecologist.
Experience: served as commander of Russia's Mir space station from August 1998 through February 1999; commander of the International Space Station, Expedition 9, in 2004.
Cool fact: Enjoys theater, sport parachuting and diving.
Koichi Wakata
Role: Flight Engineer
Age: 45
Hometown: Saitama, Japan.
Family: Married with one child.
Education: Bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering in 1987, a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics in 1989, and a Doctorate in aerospace engineering in 2004, all from Kyushu University.
Experience: Flew as a mission specialist aboard STS-72 in 1996; flew as a mission specialist on STS-92 in 1996.
Cool fact: The first Japanese astronaut to serve on a resident crew at the International Space Station, Wakata in March tested odor-free underwear designed to kill bacteria, absorb water and dry quickly. Made by researchers at Japan Women's University in Tokyo, they also also are flame-retardent and anti-static.
Arriving at the station (left to right):
Robert "Bob" Brent Thirsk
Role: Flight Engineer
Age: 55
Hometown: New Westminster, British Columbia.
Family: Wife, Brenda; three children.
Education: Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Calgary in 1976; Master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978; Doctorate of Medicine from McGill University in 1982; Master's in business administration, MIT Sloan School of Management in 1998.
Experience: Flew as a payload specialist aboard STS-78 in 1996.
Cool fact: Served as commander of an 11-day NASA undersea mission in 2004 at the National Undersea Research Center in Key Largo.
Frank De Winne
Role: Flight Engineer/Commander
Military rank: Brigadier General, Belgian Air Component
Age: 48
Hometown: Ghent, Belgium.
Family: Married with three children.
Education: Graduated from Royal School of Cadets in Lier in 1979; Master's degree in telecommunications and civil engineering from Royal Military Academy in Brussels in 1984; Completed the Staff Course at the Defence College in Brussels in 1991; Graduated from Empire Test Pilots School in Boscombe Down, England, 1992.
Experience: Served as a flight engineer on an 11-day round trip to the International Space Station in 2002.
Cool fact: Second Belgian to fly in space (after Dirt Frimout, who flew the STS-45 mission in 1992) Enjoys football, small PC applications, and gastronomy.
Roman Romanenko
Role: Flight Engineer
Military rank: Major, Russian Air Force
Age: 37
Hometown: Schelkovo, Moscow Region.
Family: Wife, Yulia; one child.
Education: Graduated from Star City High School in 1986; Leningrad Surorov military school in 1988; graduated as a pilot-engineer from Chernigov High Air Force School in 1992.
Experience: First space flight.
Cool fact: A second-generation cosmonaut, his father is Yuri Romanenko, a veteran Soyuz commander twice named Hero Of The Soviet Union.
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