US, Italian and Russian spacefliers begin quick trip to space station

A Soyuz capsule carrying three new crew members successfully docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday, welcoming NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and two crewmates from Russia and Italy.

By Miriam Kramer Space.com

Three astronauts from Russia, the United States and Italy have become the newest residents of the International Space Station after a record-setting trip.

Five hours and 40 minutes after asuccessful Soyuz rocket launchfrom the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA's Karen Nyberg and Italy's Luca Parmitano docked their Soyuz spacecraft at the orbiting laboratory at 10:10 p.m. ET Tuesday. The new crew will remain on the space station for the next six months.

"I've never felt better in my life," Yurchikhin said just after the Soyuz docked at the station while sailing high above the South Pacific.[See Photos from the Launch and Docking]

Fast track to spaceTuesday's same-day launch and docking was the second express flight to the International Space Station by an astronaut crew.

Unmanned cargo vessels have made this kind of trip several times before, but the one-day missions are a relatively new method of flying for manned Soyuz capsules. Typically, it takes astronauts about two days to reach the space station. The fast-track itinerary calls for the capsule to orbit the Earth only four times, shortening the amount of time the astronauts need to spend in the cramped spaceship.

Watch a Russian Soyuz rocket lift off from Kazakhstan, carrying a U.S.-Italian-Russian crew to the International Space Station.

The first Soyuz crew to fly to the station using this expedited technique were waiting to greet Nyberg, Parmitano and Yurchikhin after the opening of the capsule's hatch. The three newest space station residents will join NASA's Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov to round out the Expedition 36 crew.

"[Your trip was] even faster than Pavel," a Russian mission controller joked with Yurchikhin after docking. The Russian Soyuz commander beat Vinogradov's time to the station by six minutes.

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US, Italian and Russian spacefliers begin quick trip to space station