Soyuz rocket docks with International Space Station, delivering three astronauts

MOSCOW, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A Russian Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft carrying three astronauts, including one American, docked with the International Space Station on Saturday, delivering the astronauts for a six-month mission orbiting Earth.

NASA flight engineer Peggy Whitson, along with Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, were aboard the Soyuz rocket, which launched two days ago. The trio have orbited Earth inside since then and finally docked with the space station at 4:58 p.m. EST, according to NASA.

The astronauts are scheduled to open the doors to the space station later Saturday. Once they do, they will be greeted by Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, who have been aboard the complex since October.

Expedition 50 is a joint mission on the International Space Station. During their time there, astronauts will study a variety of health and science effects in space including details of microgravity on space-grown plants and on the human body itself.