Three new astrouts join key research on ISS

Washington, Dec 16: With the opening of hatches between the Intertiol Space Station (ISS) and an arriving Soyuz spacecraft, three new Expedition 46 astrouts joined the three ISS residents to continue key research that advances SA’s journey to Mars while making discoveries that can benefit humanity. Tim Kopra of SA, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmout Yuri Malenchenko and ESA (European Space Agency) astrout Tim Peake were launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and after orbiting Earth four times, manually docked to the station on Tuesday. The trio join Commander Scott Kelly of SA and flight engineers Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos. (IANS)