On Wednesday, May 27, 2009, the Soyuz Russian spacecraft launched from Kazakhstan and hooked up with the International Space Station to drop off three crew members. The linkup took place Friday over 200 miles above the coast of China. It is the first time in the Space Station’s 10 years that it has been fully manned.

The addition of the three crew member is not the only exciting news for the International Space Station. Besides being at full staff, the Space Station is properly represented by all the countries involved with the program. The crew includes two astronauts from Russia, and one each from America, Japan, Canada and Belgium. In a few weeks time the United States will send the space shuttle Endeavour to add seven more astronauts to the crew.

Since the Space Station began in 2000 there have never been more than three crew members aboard, and even at one point there was a period of time where only two crew members were there after the space shuttle Columbia disaster. In a few weeks there will be a record 13 astronauts on the International Space Station. NASA believes that now the real science research will begin since there are enough astronauts aboard to do more than just man the station and take care of the day to day tasks.

The crew shares a total of nine rooms together. There are three labs, two toilets, two kitchens and two mini-gyms along with five sleeping compartments. Plans to expand the International Space Station are planned. It is continually growing.

Since NASA will go through some big changes with the space shuttles retiring at the end of 2010, they will be busy bringing big spare parts to space. The next trip will include parts for the Japanese lab the crew will finish building. They hope to leave on June 13, 2009 if the weather is good and equipment is ready. If they miss the June 13th date, it could be sometime in July when they finally leave.

In the future, the Russian Space Agency will help NASA by bringing the American astronauts back and forth after the space shuttles retire. It will be a very expensive trip for the Americans at a cost of $51 million for each American astronaut. Don’t worry, that is round trip.

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