Soyuz carrying a multinational crew docks with the ISS

The Russian spacecraft carrying astronauts from various countries has finally docked with the International Space Station. It would be preparing for the Space Shuttle’s first visit to the space ever since the Columbia disaster, which killed all the astronauts abroad while coming back to the planet earth. The spacecraft locked itself onto the station at 10:20 p.m. EDT.

Soyuz was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. It carries three astronauts who would meet the two men residing on the ISS since the last six months. Fred Gregory, NASA deputy administrator congratulated the people involved in the mission and reported that Space Shuttle’s launch was on schedule. In his words: “The return to flight activities for the shuttle appears to be on time. We are hopeful that we’ll be able to launch within the first window.”

The Space Shuttle is scheduled to lift off to space anytime between May 15-June 3. In its absence, American and Russia have been dependent upon the Russian Soyuz capsule, which is quite small when compared to the Space Shuttle. The two current astronauts living in the International Space Station, Russian Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao are due to return to earth along with Italian Roberto Vittori from this latest mission to ISS on April 25.