14 DAY TRIAL // If you've been keeping an eye on the news these past few days, you might have heard that, on Wednesday, a Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three astronauts launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Just as planned, the craft reached the International Space Station this Friday. At 6:15 a.m. EDT, the hatches between the Soyuz spacecraft and the orbital complex opened, and the new arrivals joined the rest of the crew already aboard the station.
This means the International Space Station is now home to as many as nine astronauts. The last time the orbital complex was this crowded was back in 2013, NASA says.
The space explorers who arrived at the station this Friday are Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency.
They were welcomed by Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Gennady Padalka, Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
The nine space explorers will only get to spend a few days together. Thus, Gennady Padalka, together with Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov, will return to Earth on September 11.
Then, Kjell Lindgren, Oleg Kononenko and Kimiya Yui will leave the station later this year, in December. As for Sergey Volkov, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, they will remain aboard the International Space Station until next year's March.
