Russia’s Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, July 17.

      According to a spokesman from the Mission Control Centre, the docking was carried out in an automatic mode at the scheduled time (8:51am Moscow time) according to directions from Earth.

      After the docking leaktightness check, he passageways between the freighter and the station have been opened. Current ISS residents, Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, warmly greated members of the news crew, including Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japan’s Space Agency (JASA) astronaut Akihito Hoshide.

      The new 33rd expedition to the International Space Station are expected to conduct over 30 scientific experiments during their stay on board, with the help of the ISS’s current crew members. The main direction is biomedical experiments and also launching of several mini-satellites.

      Russian Yury Malenchenko is the most experienced cosmonaut among the crew, this is his fifth long-duration spaceflight. Williams and Hoshide visited the ISS once each, traveling on board a U.S. space shuttle. It is their first flight experience with the Soyuz spacecraft.

Sources: Lenta.ru RIA Novosti Image: online47.ru