Soyuz TMA-04M manned transport spaceship has docked with Poisk research module of ISS (MIM-2) on Thursday May 17th (8.35 Moscow time), press-service of Federal Space Agency reports. AEX.ru

After the pressurization check of the docking interface between Soyuz TMA-04M and MIM-2 (from 11:55 to 12:25 Moscow time) the transfer hatches should be opened. After that the crew of Soyuz TMA-04M will move to ISS: Gennady Padalka (Roscosmos), Sergey Revin (ESA) and Joseph Acaba (NASA). The crew will spend 123 days at ISS – from May 17th to September 17th 2012, Roscosmos explained.

After the transfer hatches will be opened the number of the main mission at ISS will change to 31/32 and the crew will be formed by commander Oleg Kononenko (Roscosmos), onboard engineers Gennady Padalka (Roscosmos), Sergey Revin (ESA), Joseph Acaba (NASA), Andre Kaupers (ESA) and Donald Pettite (NASA).

“Experiments in different areas will be carried out during 31/32 mission after the arrival of Soyuz TMA-04M, for example, space bioengineering, biomedical research, Earth’s remote probing, solar system exploration, space materials science, geophysics and exploration of near-Earth space environment, education and fine-tuning technologies”, - the agency noted.

40 experiments should be carried out in accordance with the mission plan (8 of them are new ones). A spacewalk will also be performed in order to launch a small satellite intended for forecasting dates and locations of ground impact of exhausted parts of space objects, including satellites.

The crew of ISS-31/32 will take up and unload the Progress M-16M cargo ship, Japanese HTV-3 “Konotori-3” cargo ship,  European cargo spaceship ATV-3, also known as Edoardo Amaldi, American Space-X «Dragon» spaceship, Roscosmos noted.

The astronauts intend to conduct ecological classes for pupils of 5-7 forms from ISS.

Gennady Padalka is the most experienced member of Soyuz TMA-04M’s crew – he has already performed three spaceflights (to Mir station – in 1998; to ISS – in 2004 and 2009). He has spent a total of 585 days in space and performed eight spacewalks. Joseph Acaba has performed only one flight in the network of STS-119 mission (2009). And it is the first spaceflight for Sergey Revin.