ISS - Expedition 36 Mission patch.
May 29, 2013
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano joined their Expedition 36 crewmates when the hatches between their Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft and the International Space Station opened at 12:14 a.m. EDT Wednesday.
Image above: The newly arrived flight engineers and their Expedition 36 crewmates aboard the International Space Station speak with family members and spaceflight officials gathered at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA TV.
The Soyuz carrying the three new Expedition 36 flight engineers docked with the station’s Rassvet module at 10:10 p.m. EDT Tuesday, completing its journey from the launch pad to the orbiting complex in less than six hours. The trio launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:31 p.m. (2:31 a.m. Wednesday, Baikonur time) to begin the accelerated four-orbit journey to the station.
New Crewmates Welcomed Aboard Station
Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy of NASA and Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin of Russian Federal Space Agency, who arrived at the station March 28, welcomed the new crew members aboard their orbital home. All six crew members then participated in a welcome ceremony with family members and mission officials gathered at Baikonur.
Expedition 36 Crew Profile
Expedition 36 will operate with its full six-person crew complement until September when Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin return to Earth aboard their Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft. Their departure will mark the beginning of Expedition 37 under the command of Yurchikhin, who along with crewmates Nyberg and Parmitano will maintain the station as a three-person crew until the arrival of three additional flight engineers in late September. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano are scheduled to return to Earth in November.
Read more about Expedition 36: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition36/index.html
For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Image (mentioned), Video. Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV.
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