Space Station Population Doubles With Arrival Of New Crew

The population of the International Space Station doubled to six today after a Russian cosmonaut and astronauts from Europe and the United States docked at the outpost, capping a two-day trip from a central Asian spaceport.

First-time space flier Dmitry Kondratyev was at the controls when a Russian Soyuz spacecraft linked up with the station at 3:11 p.m. At the time the two spacecraft were flying 224 stature miles above the southwest corner of the Republic of Mali in western Africa. Seated on Kondratyev's right and left, respectively: NASA's Catherine Coleman and the European Space Agency's Paolo Nespoli of Italy.

"Docking confirmed," NASA flight commentator Rob Navias said from the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow. "A multinational crew has arrived at the International Space Station in time for the holidays,"

U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka spoke with the trio over ship-to-ship radio and welcomed them to the station. Kelly and his two crewmates have been living and working at the outpost for the past 68 days.

A post-docking news conference is about to get underway in Moscow. You can watch live NASA TV coverage here in The Flame Trench. Click the NASA TV box 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 make up half the the crew of the 26th expedition to the station, which has been continuously staffed since an inaugural crew opened the outpost for business in November 2000.

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.

Check out the Official NASA Press Kit.