iss059m260740609_NTV_VF_Exp59-60_Hatch_Opening_Welcome_Ceremony

U.S. Astronauts and Cosmonaut Dock to the Space Station for Expedition 59-60 Mission After launching earlier in the day in their Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 59-60 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos and NASA Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch arrived at the International Space Station March 14, U.S. time, to complete a six-hour journey, docking their vehicle to the Rassvet module on the Russian segment of the complex. A few hours after docking, Ovchinin, Hague and Koch opened hatches and were greeted by station Commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency. As the hatches were opened, the families of the newly arrived crew members and American and Russian space officials viewed the activities from Baikonur and offered their congratulations to the newest residents of the outpost as they begin a six-and-a-half-month mission to conduct important research investigations.