A Russian spaceship carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early Wednesday, the Mission Control Center outside Moscow said. The 22nd ISS mission on board the Soyuz TMA-17 spaceship, consisting of Russian Oleg Kotov, NASA's Timothy Creamer and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, will join Maxim Surayev and Jeffrey Williams already working at the space station.

After two days of flight, the spaceship docked with the ISS in an automatic mode at 1:48 Moscow time (2248 GMT Tuesday), said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for the Mission Control.

The three astronauts were scheduled to open the hatch and enter the space station at around 3:40 Moscow time (0040 GMT), after checking on airtight conditions and pressures.

A Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-17 spaceship lifted off at 00:52 Moscow time Monday (2152 GMT Sunday) from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

During their 161 days in space, the crew members will complete several docking tasks, including those of two Russian freighters and three U.S. space shuttles, as well as conducting some 48 scientific experiments and one spacewalk.

Meanwhile a Russian MIM-1 small research module called "Rassvet" (Dawn), which will be sent to the ISS by a U.S. space shuttle in May, 2010, is also set to be docked to the ISS during the mission.

The 7.9-ton "Rassvet" module will be used to conduct a series of scientific experiments, especially those of biotechnology and material science. It can also be used to deposit experiment equipment.

Kotov as commander of the 22nd expedition mission said they would bring New Year gifts and a Christmas tree to the space station. Noguchi said he would make fresh sushi at the ISS. Creamer, a space "novice", has planned to keep on "twittering" about this journey from the cosmos.