spacetoday.net: Soyuz docks with ISS

Posted: Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 6:02 AM ET (1102 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-22 docking (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new International Space Station crewmembers docked with the station early Wednesday, ending any remaining fears that the station would soon have to be decrewed. The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft docked with the station's Poisk module at 12:24 am EST (0524 GMT) Wednesday, and hatches separating the station and spacecraft opened about two hours later. Onboard the Soyuz was American astronaut Dan Burbank and Russia cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, who now join the existing ISS crew of Mike Fossum, Satoshi Furukawa, and Sergei Volkov. Fossum, Furukawa, and Volkov will return to Earth next week, with three new crewmembers scheduled for launch next month. The Soyuz, launched two days earlier from Baikonur, had been delayed for two months to allow for an investigation into an August launch failure of a similar Soyuz rocket carrying a Progress cargo spacecraft. Had the Soyuz not launched and successfully docked with the station before next week, the station would have been temporarily left in orbit without a crew.