Q&A with Michel Denis, ExoMars flight director

Two days after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, three new crew members arrived Friday at the International Space Station to begin a six-month stay. Docking of the crew’s Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft to the station’s Rassvet module occurred at 9:01 a.m. EDT (1301 GMT).

The red planet’s brush with Comet Siding Spring was a close encounter of the best kind for science, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study a pristine remnant of the solar system’s birth 4.6 billion years ago as it makes its first and possibly last visit to the warmth of the inner solar system.

Watch replays of the launch and docking of the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft Friday with three new crew members for the International Space Station.