Welcome aboard! The newest residents have floated into the International Space Station from their Soyuz capsule for the formal ceremony. Also participating via a live communications linkup are the VIPs gathered on the balcony in Russia's mission control center outside Moscow.

The hatchway between the Soyuz spacecraft and the station was opened at 4:10 a.m. EDT.

The outpost's Expedition 31 crew is comprised of three Russians and two Americans and a European astronaut. The outpost is back to the full 6-person-strong operating team.

A Russian Soyuz ferry craft glided to a smooth linkup with the International Space Station early Thursday, bringing three fresh crew members to the lab complex and clearing the way for launch of a new commercial cargo ship Saturday, a critical test flight intended to pave the way for post-shuttle U.S. resupply missions.

Read our full story.

The docking probe on the front of Soyuz has retracted, allowing the hooks and latches to close and form a seal between the capsule and station. Pressure and leak checks will be performed over the next orbit before the hatchway is opened for the crew to enter into the station at 3:55 a.m. EDT (0755 GMT).

The docking occurred as the space station flew over the Mongolian-Kazakh border at an altitude of 249 miles, about two minutes ahead of schedule because stationkeeping was abbreviated due to the good alignment of the capsule.

Over the next few minutes, the Soyuz docking probe will retract to allow hooks and latches to bring the spacecraft to a firm seal with the station. Hatches between the two vehicles will be opened around 3:55 a.m. EDT.

DOCKING! The Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft has docked to the Poisk module of the space station, delivering NASA's Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin to the international outpost for their four-month research mission.

The new Expedition 31 residents join commander Oleg Kononenko, NASA's Don Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers.

The capsule remains on course and lined up for docking. A steady, stable approach using Soyuz's automated rendezvous system continues.

Now inside 49 feet and closing.

Less than 100 feet to go. Everything is going by the book.

The range between Soyuz and station is about 125 feet, closing 0.31 mph.

Range now to 157 feet, closing at 0.47 miles per hour.

Range down to 196 feet, closing at 0.58 miles per hour.

Now 285 feet, closing at 0.87 miles per hour.

Now 425 feet to docking, closing at 1.6 mph.

The final approach to docking is underway a couple minutes ahead of schedule, closing the final 625 feet.

The Russian flight control team has given approval for the final approach to commence.

The Soyuz completed the flyaround to align with the docking port. It's now in the stationkeeping hold about while controllers verify all is in readiness for final approach.

About 655 feet separate the two spacecraft as the Soyuz continues its intercept.

The capsule is completing a roll maneuver as part of the sequence to prepare for docking.

Soyuz is flying itself around the international outpost to get into the approach corridor leading to the Poisk module's docking port.

Having completed breaking maneuvers, the range is 2,000 feet, closing at 4.0 miles per hour.

The Soyuz is less than 3,000 feet from the station, closing at 6.3 miles per hour.

The Soyuz spacecraft with NASA's Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin is nearing the space station for docking a little more than a half-hour from now at 12:38 a.m. EDT. You can watch live NASA Television coverage right here on this page.

The Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new residents for the International Space Station continues on course in its pursuit of the orbiting complex for docking just after midnight EDT tonight.

Soyuz TMA-04M was launched Monday at 11:01:23 p.m. EDT, the precise moment when the Earth's rotation brought the Baikonur pad into alignment with the International Space Station's orbital plane, riding its three-stage booster into a preliminary orbit of 153 by 125 miles, tilted 51.6 degrees to the equator.

The automated rendezvous sequence aboard the Russian-built crew transport capsule begins today at 10:18 p.m. EDT to control the activities via autopilot.

The day's first key engine firing is planned for 10:40 p.m. and another impulse is expected around 11:03 p.m. EDT, followed within minutes by activation of the Kurs rendezvous equipment on both the Soyuz and space station to guide the linkup. Another burn comes up at 11:26 p.m.

The two spacecraft should be within 60 miles of each other by 11:22 p.m., closing to less than 10 miles by 11:50 p.m.

The television camera on the nose of Soyuz will be turned on at 11:58 p.m. to provide views of the docking.

A series of maneuvers between 12:08 and 12:16 a.m. will dramatically slow the Soyuz's closure rate, ultimately leading to the spacecraft beginning a flyaround of the space station at 12:18 a.m. to align with the Poisk module's docking port.

After a stationkeeping hold by the Soyuz to ensure all is in readiness for docking, the spacecraft will commence final approach at 12:28 a.m. for docking about 10 minutes later. Soyuz commander Gennady Padalka will be standing by to take over manual flying of the spacecraft if required.

The linkup should occur at 12:38 a.m. EDT, a few minutes after orbital sunrise.

The hatch opening and welcoming ceremony aboard the station is expected around 3:55 a.m. EDT.

Watch this page for live updates and streaming video starting at 12 midnight EDT (0400 GMT).

And take a look back at Monday's countdown and launch in our photo gallery!

If you missed the launch, we've archived highlights of the countdown and blastoff for our Spaceflight Now+Plus subscribers in both standard and high definition video:

Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: FULL EXPERIENCE FROM LIFTOFF TO ORBIT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS SITE 254 FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: CREW MEMBERS DON THEIR SOKOL SPACESUITS PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: LAUNCH DAY TRADITIONS AT CREW QUARTERS PLAY | HI-DEF
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A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying one of the world's most experienced space fliers, a rookie cosmonaut and a NASA shuttle veteran blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan late Monday U.S. time, climbing away through a cloudless blue sky to kick off a two-day voyage to the International Space Station.

Read our launch story.

"The crew feels terrific, no issues," the Soyuz crewmates just radioed to Russian mission control.

Following a flawless climb to orbit with no issues or problems reported, the crew has been given clearance to open helmet visors and loosen their seat belts.

See our Facebook page for images of the countdown and launch!

NASA's Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin have arrived in orbit following launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Activities upcoming over the next few hours include opening the hatchway into the capsule's living compartment where the crew can remove their spacesuits, pressurization of the Soyuz propellant tanks and two orbit adjustment maneuvers. The trio of crewmates should begin their sleep period around 6 a.m. EST.

That pair of maneuvers later tonight will be followed by another one early Wednesday to put Soyuz on the proper trajectory for Wednesday's late-night rendezvous and docking with the space station.

The craft is completing a programmed sequence to deploy the power-generating solar arrays, as well as antennas for navigational and communication systems.

T+plus 9 minutes. CAPSULE SEPARATION! The Soyuz spacecraft is flying free after the upper stage finished its engine firing and then separated away. The capsule is in pursuit of the International Space Station for a planned docking around 12:38 a.m. EDT on Thursday.

T+plus 8 minutes. About a minute remains in the propulsion by the upper stage. The motor consumes kerosene and liquid oxygen just like the Soyuz rocket's other powerplants.

T+plus 7 minutes. The four-nozzle engine of the upper stage continues to burn to inject the spacecraft into orbit.

T+plus 6 minutes, 25 seconds. Everything is normal aboard the spacecraft, the crew reports as the Soyuz rockets toward space.

T+plus 6 minutes. Soyuz's upper stage is firing to propel the spacecraft into a stable orbital perch around Earth on the two-day pursuit to catch the International Space Station.

T+plus 5 minutes. The core stage of the Soyuz rocket has shut down and separated, leaving the upper stage to complete the job of injecting the Soyuz capsule into orbit.

T+plus 4 minutes. The core motor continues to fire on its propellant mixture of kerosene fuel and supercold liquid oxygen.

T+plus 3 minutes. The safety escape tower and launch shroud have been jettisoned from the atop the Soyuz capsule.

T+plus 2 minutes, 10 seconds. The four strap-on boosters clustered around the Soyuz rocket's main stage have burned out and separated. The core motor continues to fire.

T+plus 60 seconds. Good performance one minute into this ascent for the Soyuz rocket and its three-person crew from the Kazakh launch base. Flight engineer Sergei Revin is strapped into the left-hand seat, Gennady Padalka is in the center seat for his role as the Soyuz commander and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba is riding in the right-hand seat.

T+plus 30 seconds. The Soyuz is heading on course for a rendezvous with the space station almost 50 hours from now. The station currently is flying about 250 miles above the Middle East.

LIFTOFF! Liftoff of the Soyuz rocket for the International Space Station's Expedition 31 to continue the operations and research aboard the orbiting laboratory in the sky.

T-minus 30 seconds. The first umbilical arm has separated from Soyuz. The second will retract in the next few seconds.

T-minus 1 minute and counting. The Soyuz has been placed on internal power.

T-minus 2 minutes and counting. Rocket propellant tank pressurization is underway. The vehicle's onboard measurement system is activated. Oxidizer and fuel drain and safety valves of the launch vehicle have been closed.

T-minus 3 minutes and counting. The nitrogen purge of the combustion chambers of side and central engine pods of the rocket is being performed in preparation for ignition.

T-minus 4 minutes. The launch key has been inserted in the bunker for liftoff.

T-minus 5 minutes and counting. Soyuz has switched to onboard control, the ground measurement system and the capsule commander's controls are being activated.

T-minus 5 minutes, 30 seconds. The crew reports everything is looking good for launch.

T-minus 6 minutes. The automatic program for final launch operations is being initiated.

See our Facebook page for images of the countdown and launch!

T-minus 9 minutes and counting. The crew has closed its helmet visors.

T-minus 10 minutes. The crew inside the Soyuz capsule are starting recorders to collect data during launch.

T-minus 14 minutes and counting. The Soyuz telemetry systems are being activated. They will relay real-time data back to Earth during today's launch.

T-minus 17 minutes. Now in the launch count, realignment of the Soyuz rocket's trajectory control system and checks of internal batteries should be complete. The Soyuz telemetry system will soon be activated and monitoring of Soyuz's thermal control system also will begin.

T-minus 19 minutes and counting. The three-stage Soyuz rocket will insert the 15,700-pound space capsule into a 143 by 118 mile orbit, inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator, according to NASA.

The emergency escape system is being armed. The system would be employed if a major malfunction occurs, propelling the Soyuz capsule off the top of the rocket to safety.

Retraction of the two-piece service structure that has enclosed the Soyuz rocket during its stay at the launch pad is underway as the towers rotate to a horizontal position. Several other umbilical arms connecting the rocket to the ground will be retracted at various times later in the countdown.

T-minus 24 minutes. The crew is completing leak checks of the Sokol launch spacesuits at this point in the countdown.

See our Facebook page for images of the countdown and launch!

Acaba becomes the 22nd NASA astronaut to launch aboard the Russian Soyuz dating back to Norm Thagard in 1995. Two of those astronauts have gone up twice, making this NASA's 24th "seat" reserved in the capsule flights to both the Mir and the International Space Station. In addition, six Americans have paid to fly on the spacecraft as tourists to the ISS.

Gennady Padalka, 53, is a veteran of three long-duration spaceflights aboard two space stations. A colonel in the Russian air force, he graduated from military college in 1979 and became a cosmonaut in 1991. His first voyage lasted 198 days as commander aboard the Russian space station Mir from summer 1998 to early 1999. Then came a 188-day trip to the International Space Station as commander of Expedition 9 in 2004 and conducted four spacewalks. He followed that with another stint as commander of the International Space Station on Expeditions 19 and 20 in 2009 lasting 199 days. He is married with three children.

Read his full bio.

Joe Acaba, 44, previously flew to the International Space Station aboard the shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission in 2009, installing the final pair of power-generating solar wings and conducting two spacewalks on the flight. Born in Anaheim, California, Acaba holds a Master's degree in geology, served in the Dominican Republic for the U.S. Peace Corps and taught high school science in Melbourne, Florida, and middle school math and science at Dunnellon Middle School, Florida, before becoming an astronaut. He has three children.

Read his full bio.

Sergei Revin, 46, is a Russian cosmonaut preparing to make his first flight into space. Educated in Moscow as a engineer-physicist, he began training as a test cosmonaut in 1996. Married with two children, Revin will serve as flight engineer aboard the Soyuz during launch and aboard the International Space Station during this four-month tour-of-duty.

Read his full bio.

T-minus 60 minutes and counting. NASA's Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin were awakened about eight hours ago to begin launch day activities. They signed the doors at crew quarters and received religious blessings before boarding a bus that took the three crewmates the 25-mile distance into the cosmodrome. They donned their white Sokol launch and entry suits, met with officials from their respective space agencies and then headed for the pad. Crowds of well-wishers gathered to wave goodbye as the crew reached the rocket. An elevator took the trio up to the capsule-level of the tower to begin climbing aboard the cramped spacecraft.

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T-minus 2 hours. The Soyuz rocket is fueled, the crew has traveled to the launch pad and the countdown is progressing toward liftoff of the space station's Expedition 31 crew from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:01 p.m. EDT.

In the early morning light, the crew has arrived the Baikonur launch pad to begin boarding the capsule and taking their assigned seats for blastoff a little over two-and-a-half hours from now.

A booster rocket topped with the next Soyuz crew transporter bound for the International Space Station was rolled by rail to the launch pad Sunday for a Monday night blastoff carrying a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts.

See the rollout photo gallery.

Liftoff of the three-man crew from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 11:01 p.m. EDT (0301 GMT Tuesday) from the same pad used to send the first human into space a half-century ago.

Russia's Gennady Padalka, cosmonaut Sergei Revin and NASA's Joe Acaba are headed to the orbiting outpost for a 125-day mission as part of the Expeditions 31 and 32.

They'll join the trio already living up there -- commander Oleg Kononenko of Russian NASA's Don Pettit and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers.

Utilizing the space laboratory and conducting diverse research is the main goal of the mission, as well as receiving the international mix of resupply ships.

"Lots of research (is) going on," said Kirk Shireman, the International Space Station's deputy program manager. "They have over 287 different investigations they will be doing (and) over 400 principal investigators who will be involved in all the experiments."

The Soyuz rocket and its TMA-04M capsule, mounted horizontally on a railcar, journeyed along a winding route from the integration facility at Site 254 to the same historic pad used by Yuri Gagarin.

Hydraulic pistons lifted the rocket upright on the pad and gantry swing arms moved into position to enclose the vehicle. Technicians on four levels hooked up electrical and telemetry cables between the rocket and pad.

"A beautiful day to put a rocket up in the vertical. The process went very smoothly and we're ready to go," said Eric Boe, NASA's deputy chief of the astronaut office.

Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: FINAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOYUZ PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: SOYUZ ROCKET ROLLED TO LAUNCH PAD PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: LAUNCH VEHICLE IS HOISTED VERTICALLY PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: POST-ROLLOUT COMMENTS FROM OFFICIALS PLAY | HI-DEF

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Following liftoff of the three-stage, liquid-fueled booster, the capsule will be inserted into a preliminary orbit within nine minutes. But it will take two days for the Soyuz spacecraft to the reach station. Docking is scheduled for Thursday around 12:38 a.m. EDT (0438 GMT).

Here is an overview the key events in the Soyuz's launch countdown, as provided by NASA:

• T- 6:00:00 Batteries are installed in the booster
  
  
• T- 5:30:00 State commission gives "go" to take launch vehicle
  
  
• T- 5:15:00 Crew arrives at site 254
  
  
• T- 5:00:00 Tanking begins
  
  
• T- 4:20:00 Spacesuit donning
  
  
• T- 4:00:00 Booster is loaded with liquid oxygen
  
  
• T- 3:40:00 Crew meets delegations
  
  
• T- 3:10:00 Reports to the State commission
  
  
• T- 3:05:00 Transfer to the launch pad
  
  
• T- 3:00:00 Vehicle first and second stage oxidizer fueling complete
  
  
• T- 2:35:00 Crew arrives at launch vehicle
  
  
• T- 2:30:00 Crew ingress through orbital module side hatch
  
  
• T- 2:00:00 Crew in re-entry vehicle
  
  
• T- 1:45:00 Re-entry vehicle hardware tested; suits are ventilated
  
  
• T- 1:30:00 Launch command monitoring and supply unit prepared;
  -- Orbital compartment hatch tested for sealing
  
  
• T- 1:00:00 Launch vehicle control system prepared for use; gyro instruments activated
  
  
• T- :45:00 Launch pad service structure halves are lowered
  
  
• T- :40:00 Re-entry vehicle hardware testing complete; leak checks performed on suits
  
  
• T- :30:00 Emergency escape system armed; launch command supply unit activated
  
  
• T- :25:00 Service towers withdrawn
  
  
• T- :15:00 Suit leak tests complete; crew engages personal escape hardware auto mode
  
  
• T- :10:00 Launch gyro instruments uncaged; crew activates on-board recorders
  
  
• T- 7:00 All prelaunch operations are complete
  
  
• T- 6:15 Key to launch command given at the launch site;
  -- Automatic program of final launch operations is activated
  
  
• T- 6:00 All launch complex and vehicle systems ready for launch
  
  
• T- 5:00 Onboard systems switched to onboard control;
  -- Ground measurement system activated by RUN 1 command;
  -- Commander's controls activated;
  -- Crew switches to suit air by closing helmets;
  -- Launch key inserted in launch bunker
  
  
• T- 3:15 Combustion chambers of side and central engine pods purged with nitrogen
  
  
• T- 2:30 Booster propellant tank pressurization starts;
  -- Onboard measurement system activated by RUN 2 command;
  -- Prelaunch pressurization of all tanks with nitrogen begins
  
  
• T- 2:15 Oxidizer and fuel drain and safety valves of launch vehicle are closed;
  -- Ground filling of oxidizer and nitrogen to the launch vehicle is terminated
  
  
• T- 1:00 Vehicle on internal power;
  -- Automatic sequencer on;
  -- First umbilical tower separates from booster
  
  
• T- :40 Ground power supply umbilical to third stage is disconnected
  
  
• T- :20 Launch command given at the launch position;
  -- Central and side pod engines are turned on
  
  
• T- :15 Second umbilical tower separates from booster
  
  
• T- :10 Engine turbopumps at flight speed
  
  
• T- :05 First stage engines at maximum thrust
  
  
• T- :00 Fueling tower separates;
  -- Lift off

Watch this page for live updates and a video webcast during the final countdown and launch.

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