The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Tuesday and then the number of crew members will increase to 5. There are currently only two after the three members of the previous crew left in their Soyuz spacecraft about ten days ago
Shortly before midnight Israel time, the Soyuz TM-17 spacecraft took off from the space center in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, carrying three members of the 22nd crew of the International Space Station.
About ten minutes later, the spacecraft was already in an intermediate orbit around the Earth and will perform maneuvers during the next two days that will bring it together with the space station.
The American astronaut T.G. Kramer, the Russian Oleg Kutov and the Japanese Suichi Noguchi will expand the 22nd crew to five people who have been there since they took off in a previous Souz spacecraft: crew chief Jeff Williams and flight engineer Maxim Surayev. For about ten days the two were alone on the space station, because of a shuttle Space Atlantis returned Nicole Stott to Earth, and did not bring anyone else up in her place.
From now on, only Soyuz spacecraft will be responsible for bringing up crew members, while the remaining five shuttle flights will be used to continue upgrading the station and maintaining it, as well as preparing it for a long period in which no launches will be carried out with the arrival of the three - Russian Americans and Japanese Americans.
With the arrival of the three - a Russian American and a Japanese - on Tuesday at the International Space Station, they will join their two friends who remained alone for about ten days.
