NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The six-member Expedition 30 crew participates in a welcome ceremony shortly after the hatches between the station and the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft were opened. Credit: NASA TV

The International Space Station is now fully staffed with a six-member crew. Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Don Pettit, Oleg Kononenko and Andre Kuipers were welcomed aboard the orbiting complex when the hatches between the station and the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft were opened at 12:43 p.m. EST on Friday, Dec. 23. They docked to the Rassvet module at 10:19 a.m.

They launched at 8:16 a.m. (7:16 p.m. local time) on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers are scheduled to live and work aboard the orbiting laboratory until May.

› Read more about the launch
› Watch a video of the launch

The new trio joins Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin who have been living and working on the station since Nov. 16. After a safety briefing, the station’s newest residents will begin a series of ongoing orientation activities to begin the process of familiarizing themselves with their new home aboard the orbiting laboratory.