Three Spaceflyers Arrive at International Space Station in Time for Christmas

This story was updated Dec. 21 at 12:05 p.m. EST.

The three newest residents of the International Space Station arrived at the high-flying laboratory Friday morning (Dec. 21) aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, just in time to celebrate an orbital Christmas.

At 9:09 a.m. EST (1409 GMT) the capsule delivered Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield who will become the station's first Canadian commander as well as Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn. The spaceflyers' journey started Wednesday (Dec. 19) when they launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 7:12 a.m. EST (1212 GMT).

After docking, the astronauts performed leak checks on the seal between their Soyuz TMA-07M capsule and the space station's docking port on the Rassvet module before opening the hatches between the two vehicles at 11:37 a.m. EST (1637 GMT). Shortly thereafter, the new arrivals floated inside the station that is to become their home for the next five months. [Expedition 34 Launch in Pictures]

"All of Canada tuned in to watch that absolutely picture-perfect launch," Paul Engel, director of communications for the Canadian Space Agency, told the astronauts from Mission Control in Moscow after the three new crewmembers arrived. "Absolutely extraordinary. Good luck with the mission."

The spaceflyers each got to speak to members of their families gathered at Mission Control.

"Your face looks a bit puffed up. Have you been smilling a lot?" Hadfield's son Evan asked his father, whom he watched via a live video stream from the space station.

"Yeah, we've been smiling a lot," Hadfield replied. "It was just a heck of a ride for the three of us. It's like being on a crazy dragster."

Then Marshburn's daughter asked him to demonstrate a somersault in microgravity, and the astronaut happily obliged.

Complete crew

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Three Spaceflyers Arrive at International Space Station in Time for Christmas