Soyuz TMA-15M manned transport spaceship docked with International Space Station (ISS) on November 24th 2014 (05.48 Moscow time), press-service of Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) reports.
The spaceship docked with Rassvet research module of Russian segment of the ISS. The rendezvous procedure has been performed in automatic mode under control of specialists from Mission Control Center of TSNIIMASH, crew of Soyuz TMA-15M: commander Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos), flight engineers Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA) and Terry Virts (NASA); and the Russian members of ISS crew Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova.
After the opening of transfer hatches at 07:30 (Moscow time) the crew of the 42/43 ISS mission started its work. The crew comprises the following astronauts: Alexander Samokutyaev, Elena Serova and Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos), Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts (NASA), and Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA), Roscosmos added.
In accordance with the flight program the crew of 42/43 ISS mission will interact with the following transport ships: Progress M-25M, Progress M-26M, Progress M-27M, ATV-5 «Georges Lemaitre» (Europe), and HTV-5 «Kounotori» (Japan). The crew will also prepare three members of 41/42 ISS mission crew onboard Soyuz TMA-14M spaceship and take part in docking of Soyuz TMA-16M with Poisk research module of the ISS.
Moreover, the flight program includes a lot of scientific experiments in different areas, for example, space biotechnology, biomedical studies, Earth remote sensing, etc. In the course of the mission the astronauts will carry out a total of 59 experiments. The flight program also includes activities focused on maintenance of the station and fitting it with new equipment delivered by the transport spaceships. Duration of this mission will be 169 days, Roscosmos added.
