Commander Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov of the 18th International Space Station crew docked their Soyuz TMA-13 to the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module at 00:26 a.m. UTC Tuesday.
Hatches between the two spacecraft were opened at 01:55 UTC. A welcome ceremony and a safety briefing for the new arrivals followed.
The new crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 23:01 UTC Saturday to begin a six-month stay in space.
With Fincke, an Air Force colonel, and Lonchakov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, is spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.
Garriott will return to Earth with Expedition 17 crew members, Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, in their Soyuz TMA-12 on Oct. 23. Expedition 17 launched to the station April 8.
Additional info from NASA at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
