New Crew Cruises Toward High-Flying Station Docking

A multinational crew is speeding toward a high-flying arrival at the International Space Station today, one that will wind up a two-day trip from a central Asian spaceport.

Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, U.S. astronaut Catherine Coleman and the European Space Agency's Paolo Nespoli of Italy are scheduled to dock at the outpost at 3:12 p.m. EST. Awaiting their arrival: U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka.

You can watch live NASA TV coverage of the docking here in The Flame Trench starting at 2:30 p.m. Click the NASA TV box on the right side of the page to launch our NASA TV viewer. A hatch opening and welcome ceremony at 6 p.m. Live coverage of the later begins at 5:30 p.m.

Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli will be joining the crew of the 26th expedition to the station since the outpost opened for business in November 2000. The station has been continuously staffed since then.

The three space travelers blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:09 p.m. EST Wednesday, or 1:09 a.m. Thursday Kazakhstan time.

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