Failure of the Soyuz engine to ignite during the approach to the station prevented the connection on Wednesday morning. After two more days in space they finally connected to the space station
NASA astronaut Steve Swanson, and his Russian colleagues Alexander Dekvortstov and Oleg Artemyev docked at the International Space Station after spending two more days in the crowded Russian Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft, the three members of the International Space Station's 39th crew were happy to stretch their legs.
After failing to connect to the space station on Wednesday, a few hours after the launch from Baikonur and Kazakhstan, where the two cosmonauts and astronauts tried to connect on Thursday in a different way, which serves as a backup means and this time they succeeded.
NASA stated that the team was supposed to arrive at the station on Wednesday at 03:00 GMT, but a fault in the spacecraft's position prevented the engines from starting for the third time and therefore they were unable to reach the station.
On Thursday, March 27 at 11:53 GMT, the Soyuz arrived and docked at the station. About two and a half hours later, the gates between the spacecraft and the station were opened.
