Gennady and Sergei after arrival with their Soyuz spacecraft (Credit: ESA/NASA)

Gennady and Sergei after arrival with their Soyuz spacecraft (Credit: ESA/NASA)

In his latest blog entry ESA astronaut André Kuipers reflects on life on board the International Space Station now that the crew has returned to a complement of six.

He writes: “There are six of us again on the Space Station. Two weeks ago the Soyuz TMA-04M arrived with Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin and Joe Acaba. It was a special moment. We listened to Russian flight control communicate with the new crew on the radio. I felt the spacecraft dock with a bump. After the necessary safety checks we opened the hatch and ISS crew was back to full strength: six people.”

Read more in André’s logbook: ‘I sometimes feel like a veteran’