Soyuz Crew Opens Hatch to ISS

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on March 27. The crew on board included Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev. They docked at the ISS with no trouble at 7:53 EDT, and were greeted by station Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They will spend six months at the station.

The crew opened the hatches and were greeted by station Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos. As the hatches were opened, the families of the newly arrived crew and American and Russian space officials viewed the activities from the Russian Mission Control Center. Credit: NASA