Soyuz Drops Astronauts Off At Space Station

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin and Italy's Luca Parmitano travelled six hours in the capsule before linking up with the ISS's Russian Rassvet research module.

三名宇航员搭乘俄罗斯“联盟TMA-09M”号宇宙飞船前往国际空间站，他们将在国际空间站逗留172天，完成34项实验。

新闻背景：

俄罗斯航天局表示，载有3名宇航员的俄“联盟TMA－09M”飞船已经成功和国际空间站对接。俄罗斯航天局发言人说：“起飞6个小时以后，飞船按照计划和国际空间站自动对接。幸运的是，宇航员不需要切换到手动模式完成对接。”

俄联邦航天署称，“联盟TMA－09M”飞船于莫斯科时间5月29日0点31分起飞，飞船由“质子”运载火箭搭载，由拜科努尔发射场升空，搭载的3名宇航员分别是俄罗斯的费奥多尔·尤尔奇金、美国的凯伦·耐伯格、以及来自欧洲航天局的卢卡·帕尔米塔诺。在空间站迎接他们的是俄罗斯航天署宇航员帕维尔?维纳格拉多夫、亚历山大?米苏尔金和美国航空航天局宇航员克里斯托弗?卡西迪，他们从2013年3月以来在太空执勤。

Five, four, three, two, one, zero, and lift off, lift off of Karen Nyberg,Fyodor Yurchikhin and Luca Parmitano on a 6-hour ride to the internationalspace station. You might have seen launches like this before, but theseastronauts took a shortcut to the international space station. The spacecraft'sspeed is almost 13,500 miles an hour. It's a journey that normally takes twodays in these exhilarating but cramped conditions. This mission used a neworbit around the earth. Our system is normal. It puts more pressure on theastronaut's bodies, but after just 6 hours the crew of the Soyuz arrived at thedestination and the hatches between the Soyuz spacecraft and the internationalspace station opening. These were the first moments of their stay in space.That was a quite bright station. That was pretty fantastic. They've got a toughact to follow. Commander Chris Hadfield recently brought the wonders of spaceto a new generation using songs and social media. He used twitter to wish theseastronauts good luck. Before she left, the flight engineer said she was hopingto inspire others. "I hope they see from, you know looking at my situationthat their possibilities are out there, I think some children don't know the possibilitiesand I think some children may not know what they are capable of. The crew willnow spend 6 months on the space station. They also have twitter accounts withthousands of followers waiting on the world below.

Steven Douglas, SKY News.