Russian rocket successfully docks at space station

Two veteran astronauts and a 35-year-old doctor from Malaysia safely arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, two days after the Russian space capsule carrying themlaunched from Kazakhstan.

The Soyuzspacecraft docked to the Earth-facing port of the station's Zarya module at 10:50 a.m. ET. on Friday.

Boarding the station alongside Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor were veteran Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko and American Peggy Whitson, who will become the first woman to act as commander of the station when she formally relieves current commander Fyodor Yurchikhin.

Shukor is the first Malaysian in space. He came aboard as a representative of his country as part of a $900-million US deal in which Malaysia agreed to purchase 18 Russian fighter jets. He will return to Earth with Yurchikhin and crew member Oleg Kotov on Oct. 21.

American Clayton Anderson will remain on board the orbiting space station with Whitson and Malenchenko.

Anderson will be replaced later this month by American Daniel Tani, who is scheduled to arrive aboard the space shuttle Discovery after it launches on Oct. 23.

The tight deadline between the departure of the Russian spacecraft and the arrival of theU.S. shuttle means Anderson and his departing crewmates will have only a few days to show the new astronauts the ropes before departing.

Traditionally, the Russian andU.S. space programs have staggered their flights throughout the year so that new arrivals could work alongside astronauts who have been living on the station for months.

But Whitson and Malenchenko are both veterans of the space station. Whitson served as a flight engineer on the station in 2002, spending almost 185 days in space, while Malenchenko has logged over 300 days in space as a crew member of both the International Space Station and Russia's Mir space station.