The three astronauts of Expedition 41 arrive at the station … – RTVE

EUROPE PRESS

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Yelena Serova have come aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station Friday , a few hours after starting from Baykonur in Kazakhstan.

Spanish 7.06 hour , Max Suraev commander of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst at the European Space Agency, who arrived at the station in May, welcomed the new crew members aboard their orbital home, reported NASA.

Serova, an aeronautical engineer and economist, is the first woman in history to walk on the station and the fourth cosmonaut in over 51 years that have passed since Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space.

Shortly after arrival at the International Space Station, system solar panels of the Soyuz TMA-14M was deployed successfully .

Before did not deploy the array when the Soyuz it reached orbit, although from NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos consider This fault will not cause long term .

Ni to normal operations in the station’s Expedition 41 to 42, or for landing Barry Wilmore, Alexander and Yelena Serova Samokutyaev the end of its mission in March.

Currently there five spacecraft docked to the station . There are two Soyuz vehicles, Progress 56 resupply freighter, the ATV-5 freighter also Europe “Georges Lematre” and commercial SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which arrived on Tuesday morning.

After congratulations welcome the new crew a course mandatory safety is subjected to become familiar with evacuation routes and procedures and the location of safety equipment.

Wilmore is beginning his second visit to the space station. He was pilot of the space shuttle Atlantis in November 2009 that delivered parts for the construction of the station.

Samokutyaev starts his second spell at the orbiting lab after serving as engineer Expedition 22/23 flight. Replaces Skvortsov, who left the station two weeks ago and that was also his shipmate in 2010, while Serova is on his first mission as a cosmonaut.