A Russian spacecraft with three international astronauts on board has docked with the International Space Station early Wednesday Moscow time, two days after its launch from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, according to the Russian flight control center.
The Soyuz spacecraft brought Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, American astronaut Timothy Creamer, and Japan's Soichi Noguchi for a five-month stay at the International space station. This is unlike previous missions, which saw the return of crew to earth after delivering supplies and swapping a crew member to live on board the station.
The new three-member crew will now join American astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev, who have been manning the space station since October. They will celebrate Christmas and New Year at the space station.
The five-member crew will now remain on the space station for five months, during which they will perform a series of tasks, including a space walk and receiving two planned space shuttle flights. The crew will receive Russia's Progress, an unmanned resupply ship, and the US space agency's Endeavour shuttle in February.
Until now, Russian and American spacecraft have made alternate trips to the space station for delivering supplies and new crew members. But the February trip will be the last visit by an American space shuttle to the space station, as the United States plans to retire its aging space fleet and focus on building a new vehicle that may travel to the moon or Mars.
From March onwards, all the trips to the space station would be carried out using Russia's Soyuz and Progress crafts. As practiced earlier, one Russian spacecraft would always remain at the station for evacuating the space crew in case of emergency.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.