Space Station Receives 3 New Residents
Space shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station, delivering a new three-member crew to relieve the men who have been up there since August.
“This is a great place. You’re going to love it here,” space station commander Frank Culbertson told the new crew. “Welcome aboard!”
The shuttle pulled up as the two spacecraft orbited 250 miles above the Polish-Ukrainian border.
Cosmonaut Yuri Onufrienko, who will replace Culbertson as the space station’s skipper, floated in with a bag of apples.
Culbertson and his crew mates, Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin, will move out of the space station today.
Onufrienko and Americans Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch will take their places. They will stay aboard until May.
During Endeavour’s 11-day mission, two shuttle astronauts will venture out on a spacewalk to perform space station maintenance.
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