New crew arrives at International Space Station

Three astronautshave completed their six-hour trip aboard a Soyuz spacecrafttodock with the International Space Station.

The spacecraft carrying Russian Soyuz Cmdr. Fyodor Yurchikhin,American astronaut Karen Nyberg andItalian astronaut Luca Parmitano connected with thespace stationslightly ahead of schedule at about 10:10 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.

Ten minutes later, the docking procedure was complete.

The docking was "right on the money," said mission control after the Russian-made spacecraft arrived six minutes under the previous record time, though one of the many voices audible on the video feed noted the goal of such flights is "precision, not speed."

The three astronauts blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan at 4:31 p.m. ET Tuesday (12:31 a.m. local time Wednesday).

They orbited the Earth four times before dockingwith the space station's Rassvet module.

After docking, two hours passed before pressure equalized between the capsule and the station, allowing safe entry.

"It was a pretty cool ride," Nyberg said upon arrival.

Yurchikhin, 54, is a veteran of three previous spaceflights, while the 36-year-oldParmitano, a former test pilot, is making his first trip into space. Nyberg, 43, spent two weeks in space in 2008 as part of a U.S. space shuttle crew.

Onboard the space station they join Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who arrived at the space station in March. Vinogradov is currently commander of the space station. Hewill hand over command to Yurchikhin in September, when Vinogradov, Misurkin and Cassidy head back to Earth.

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Yurchikin, Nyberg and Parmitano are expected to returnhomein November.

Tuesday's flight was the second manned Soyuz to take a new, faster trajectory to the space station instead of the two-day trip that used to be the norm. The three astronautsalready aboard the space stationpioneered the new trajectoryin March. At that point, it had already been tested withthree unmanned spacecraft.