All six Expedition 44 crew members gathered inside the Zvezda service module for a crew greeting ceremony with new crewmates (front row from left) Kimiya Yui, Oleg Kononenko and Kjell Lindgren. In the back from left are Mikhail Kornienko, Gennady Padalka (Photo : NASA TV)
The new crew of the International Space Station finally arrived who are astronauts from the United States, Russia and Japan. After less than six hours from the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the crew namely Kjell Lindgren from the U.S., Kimiya Yui of Japan and cosmonaut Russian Oleg Kononenko, safely docked at the orbiting space lab.
This flight was apparently been postponed due to a cargo resupply mission that failed to arrive at the space station last April.
To date, manned spaceflights to the ISS are being serviced by the Russians' Roscosmos Soyuz rocket technology ever since the NASA's Space Shuttle missions ended in 2011.
The space capsule arrived and docked at the International Space Station which is located in lower Earth orbit some 250 miles above the planet at 9:45 EDT on Thursday, July 23.
Originally, the three astronauts were slated to arrive last May however Russian space officials were forced to delay this spaceflight after April 28's crash of an unmanned Soyuz resupply cargo vehicle that failed to reach the ISS where it fell back into the Earth, re-entering and burning up into the atmosphere.
According to Lindgren, it's certainly not fun seeing several cargo ships failing and experiencing mishaps. He also adds that these are the challenges that the space industry currently face where space environment can certainly become unforgiving.
This is the first time for Lindgren and Kimiya Yui to be in orbit. As a gesture, Yui brought along a sushi treat for the other crew members at the space station. The team is now complete with existing crew, Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut, Scott Kelly.
Apart from Russian Soyuz rockets that are now considered as dated Soviet technology, two American private space companies have been flying cargo to the ISS and also experienced launch failures recently from SpaceX and Orbital ATK.
