LOS ANGELES (AP) Arriving fashionably late, a Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with the International Space Station Thursday evening 250 miles over Brazil. <\/p>\n
The crew aboard the orbiting outpost congratulated the latest members Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA's Steve Swanson. <\/p>\n
\"A flawless approach, a flawless docking,\" said mission control commentator Rob Navias. <\/p>\n
The trio blasted off from Kazakhstan on Wednesday local time aboard a Soyuz rocket for what was supposed to be a six-hour straight shot to the space station. But an engine burn designed to fine-tune the craft's path did not occur as planned, delaying the docking. <\/p>\n
Two rendezvous maneuvers were executed to put the Soyuz on course. The astronauts were never in danger. <\/p>\n
Jaunts to the space station used to take two days. Last year, engineers experimented with a way to cut the trip down to six hours by compressing the number of times the Soyuz fires its engines to raise its orbit to meet the space station. <\/p>\n
Had the latest trip been on schedule, it would have been only the fifth time that a crew would have taken the \"fast track\" route. <\/p>\n
Engineers were investigating the snag, but believe the burn didn't occur because the Soyuz was not in the right position. <\/p>\n
The new crew, who will stay in orbit for six months, joined Japan's Koichi Wakata, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin. <\/p>\n
Since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, NASA has depended on the Russians to hitch a ride to the space station, paying nearly $71 million per seat. <\/p>\n
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Space station awaits for Russian craft after delay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LOS ANGELES (AP) Arriving fashionably late, a Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts docked with the International Space Station Thursday evening 250 miles over Brazil. Continue reading