Video: Change of command aboard International Space Station

A Progress refueling and resupply freighter linked up with the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment Monday, two days after blasting off from Kazakhstan with more than 2.6 tons of cargo, propellants and water.

International Space Station commander Jeff Williams set a new U.S. space endurance record Wednesday, his 521st day in orbit over four missions, eclipsing the 520-day record set earlier this year by astronaut Scott Kelly at the end of his nearly one-year stay aboard the lab complex.

Launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft Friday carrying three fresh crew members to the International Space Station will boost the lab’s crew back to six and, most important from NASA’s perspective, dramatically boost research with four crew members — three NASA astronauts and a veteran European flier — available to operate experiments in the American segment of the laboratory.