Soyuz Docks to Space Station with New Crew and 32 Fish

By Nancy Atkinson - October 25, 2012 at 2:08 PM UTC | Space Exploration
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Three new crew members -- and 32 fish -- are now at the International Space Station. Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin joined their Expedition 33 crewmates after docking the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft to the Poisk module at 12:29 UTC (8:29 a.m. EDT) Thursday. They join Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineers Aki Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko who have been on board since July 17. Hatches between the International Space Station and the Soyuz will open later today after pressure and leak checks.

32 Asian medaka fish were also launched along with the crew on Tuesday from the from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. No word yet if all the fish survived the launch, but they will be placed in a new aquarium in the Japanese Kibo lab module for research on how the fish react to microgravity and space radiation. It should also be fun for the astronauts -- and the public -- to watch the fish swim about in the Aquatic Habitat.

The Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, is a Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA, facility that will enable the study of fish aboard the International Space Station. (JAXA)

You can read more about the Aquatic Habitat

here.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com