Expedition 43 Crew Docks to the Space Station

After launching earlier in the day in their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 43 Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and NASA Flight Engineer Scott Kelly arrived at the International Space Station on March 27 U.S. time (March 28 Kazakh time) following a four-orbit, six-hour rendezvous. A few hours after docking, Padalka, Kelly and Kornienko opened hatches and were greeted by station Commander Terry Virts of NASA and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Samantha Cristoforetti of the ESA. For Kelly and Kornienko, their entrance into the station began a year on the orbital laboratory where they will conduct extensive research on the effect of long duration space travel on the human body.