After a two-day flight in space, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, commander Sergei Volkov and Aidyn Aimbetov arrived at the International Space Station at 07:39 GMT (09:39 CEST).

The automated rendezvous sequence began about two hours before docking, with the crew ready to take over manually if required. The trio opened the spacecraft hatch at 10:15 GMT (12:15 CEST) to join six astronauts already in space, bringing the total number of people on the Station to nine, for the first time since 2013.

Andreas’ ESA ‘iriss’ mission lasts ten days and he is devoting his time in space to test new technologies and improving space operations. His activities include testing a new water-cleaning membrane that mimics nature, hands-free goggles to help with complex tasks, a tight-fitting suit to alleviate back pain common in astronauts and driving three different rovers on Earth to prepare for missions farther away in our Solar System.

Follow the whole mission with live updates via the iriss mission blog http://blogs.esa.int/iriss and on Twitter via @esaoperations

Connect with Andreas at: http://andreasmogensen.esa.int/