MOSCOW - A Soyuz capsule carrying an American, Russian and Italian successfully docked with the International Space Station today, raising the size of the crew at the orbiting lab to six.
After the six-hour trip, the new crew is to spend six months conducting a variety of experiments on the space station.
The Russian spacecraft lifted off at 2:31 a.m. Kazakhstan time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases in Kazakhstan. Live footage provided by NASA TV showed it soaring into the clear night sky. About four minutes later, the announcer said the Soyuz was traveling at 4,700 mph.
The capsule carrying NASA’s Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Italy’s Luca Parmitano orbited Earth four times before docking with the station.
They joined NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, who have been aboard thestation since late March.
Yurchikhin, 54, is a veteran of three previous spaceflights, while 36-year-old Parmitano, a former test pilot, is making his first trip into space. Nyberg, 43, spent two weeks inspace in 2008 as part of a U.S. space shuttle crew.
Four spacewalks are planned during the expedition, including what NASA said would be the first by an Italian.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 05/29/2013