Docking brings space station to full staff of 6

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- The international space station just had a population boom.

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three new space station residents docked at the orbiting complex Friday. With three astronauts there to greet them, the space station now has a full staff of six for the first time in its 10-year history.

What's more, each of the major space station partners is represented on board for the first time. The combined crew, all men, now includes two Russians and one American, Japanese, Canadian and Belgian.

"There is so much potential in this beginning, in this historic milestone," Steve MacLean, president of the Canadian Space Agency and a former astronaut, said at the Russian control center outside Moscow. It represents "what we will be able to achieve with future programs ... and what we as a combined series of countries can do for the future exploration of space."

Having all these countries represented on board is "a great way to kick off a six-person crew," NASA's deputy space station program manager, Kirk Shireman, said on the eve of the linkup.

The Soyuz spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan on Wednesday. It pulled in at the space station as the two vessels soared 217 miles (350 kilometers) above the China coast.

When shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven arrives in another few weeks, a record 13 people will be at the space station, but that will be only temporary.

Ever since the first space station crew arrived in 2000, two years after the first part was launched, no more than three people have lived up there at a time. The crew size dropped to two following the 2003 Columbia disaster because of the lengthy grounding of NASA's remaining space shuttles.

Those major supply runs will end when the shuttles are retired at the end of next year. NASA hopes to stockpile big spare parts at the space station before that happens; Endeavour, in fact, will carry up some on the next shuttle mission.

NASA also will have to rely on the Russian Space Agency to transport all its astronauts up and down, once shuttles are no longer flying.