Expedition 27 Flight Engineers Ron Garan, Alexander Samokutyaev and Andrey Borisenko are set to dock to the station's Poisk module at 7:18 p.m. EDT Wednesday aboard the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, bringing the Expedition 27 crew to its full six-member complement.
Garan, Borisenko and Samokutyaev will join the current station residents, Expedition 27 Commander Dmitry Kondratyev and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli, and begin a nearly six-month tour of duty aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The trio began their journey to the station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:18 p.m. Monday (4:18 a.m. Tuesday, Kazakhstan time). Their Soyuz, named for Yuri Gagarin, lifted off just one week shy of the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's historic journey into space from that same launch pad at Baikonur.
To prepare for the arrival of their crewmates, Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli adjusted their sleep schedules to accommodate docking activities.
Earlier, Coleman worked on a laptop computer that will support the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer being delivered aboard space shuttle Endeavour during the STS-134 mission. Endeavour is currently targeted for launch on April 29.
Coleman also worked on the station's Oxygen Generation System, measuring the conductivity of one of the recirculation loops.
Nespoli worked in the Tranquility module, removing and replacing bacteria filters as needed.
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