Soyuz crew joins ISS after docking

The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft carrying a three-member multinational crew docks with the International Space Station.

The crew joined NASA Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba and two Russian cosmonauts in the space station for a four-month mission.

Moscow hopes the mission will help restore confidence in its space programme.

The Russian-U.S.-Japanese crew aboard the Soyuz arrived at the International Space Station on the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program docking in 1975, the first joint U.S.-Russian space mission.

Since the retirement of its shuttles last year, the United States is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the ISS, which costs the nation 60 million U.S. dollars per person.

Sarah Sheffer, Reuters