A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian, American and Spanish crew docked with the International Space Station today after blasting off from Kazakhstan two days ago.
Astronauts Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri are the eighth crew to have flown to the space station for long-term occupation since the inaugural crew arrived on November 2nd, 2000.
Pedro Duque of Spain, a European Space Agency astronaut travelling with Mr Foale and Mr Kaleri, is to remain aboard the station for eight days and return on October 27th with American Ed Lu and Russian Yuri Malenchenko, who have been aboard since April 28th.
The docking was done automatically, but Lu and Malenchenko nevertheless went to sleep early on Sunday in order to prepare for the event, Russian Mission Control spokesman Valeri Lyndin said.
The mission is the second time a Russian Soyuz has taken an American to the space station since the US space shuttle programme was grounded after the February 1st disintegration of the shuttle Columbiaas it was approaching Earth.
NASA now depends on Russia to keep its astronauts flying. The Russian Soyuz, whose main role was to serve as an emergency evacuation craft for the station, is now the only ship capable of carrying crews to and from the 16-nation space outpost.
AP