Soyuz docks with space station

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MOSCOW, April 6 (UPI) -- A Soyuz spacecraft with two Russians and an American aboard docked with the International Space Station Thursday, Russia's Mission Control said.

RIA Novosti reported the new arrivals would enter the space station after carrying out a series of safety procedures.

The Soyuz TMA-21 reached the space station two days after lifting off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyayev and Andrei Borisenko and U.S. astronaut Ronald Garan will work at the space station for about 160 days, joining cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli and NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, who are already aboard.

The latest Russian space mission is named "Gagarin" in honor of the 50th anniversary of man's first space flight by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.