Soyuz crew undocks; photographs space station-shuttle

Russian craft soars near shuttle Endeavour tonight. (NASA)

A Russian spacecraft departed the International Space Station tonight and captured the first in-space family portrait of the complex with a docked space shuttle.

Soyuz TMA-20 commander Dmitry Kondratyev, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli undocked from the orbiting laboratory's Rassvett module at 5:35 p.m. EDT today, as the complex flew 224 miles high over eastern China.

Kondratyev then flew the Soyuz straight out to a distance of 180 meters and began a 180-degree roll. Kondratyev then moved the Soyuz further out to 200 meters to begin a station keeping position.

Nespoli unstrapped from his seat in the Soyuz descent module and then transfered to the habitation module with digital and video cameras to record the massive complex.

The space station then began it's 120-degree motion to allow the Italian astronaut to shoot incredible images and record high def video of the shuttle-station complex.

Firing it's thrusters to stay stable, the photography from Soyuz occurred as the two spacecraft's soared 222 miles high along the Northern Pacific Ocean near the west coast of North America, and later south toward central Chile.

As Nespoli took images, Coleman reminded him not to forget to take video of the one million pound orbiting complex.

Kondratyev and Nespoli exchanged several comments on the beauty of the space station with the earth nearby.

The Soyuz TMA 20 is a three section spacecraft which includes the crew compartment, the descent module and the propulsion and instrumentation module which also includes the twin solar arrays. The middle module is the only section which re-enter's atmosphere and lands.

Soyuz fired it's separation thrusters at 6:15 p.m. to move away from the space station, and begin it's return to earth three hours later.

Kondratyev, Coleman and Nespoli lifted-off from Kazakhstan on December 15, and concluded 159 days in space tonight.

New space station crew arrives at outpost

Newly docked Soyuz craft at Space Station (NASA TV)

A manned Russian spacecraft docked to the International Space Station on Friday following it's two day chase in earth orbit.

The Soyuz TMA-20 with an American, Russian and Italian docked to the station's Rassvett module at 3:11 pm EST (2011 GMT), as the two crafts flew 224 miles high in the darkness above southwestern Africa.

Russian Dmitry Kondratyev, American Catherine "Cady" Coleman and Italian Paolo Nespoli lifted off on Wednesday afternoon from Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket bound for a six month excursion in space.

The crew of three then spent several hours completing post-docking tasks, including the opening of three select hatches prior to joining the current space station residents.

At the time of docking, the total time in which Americans have continuously lived in space is 3,697 days.

The current Expedition 26 crew of three, led by commander Scott Kelly and flight engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, grew to six with the arrival of the craft's crew members.

Soyuz commander Kondratyev, 41 and the youngest of the three, is making his first spaceflight and will later command the space station this March as a member of the Expedition 27.

Flight engineer and NASA astronaut Coleman is making her third space flight having flown aboard space shuttle Columbia twice in 1995 and 1999. She celebrated her fiftieth birthday with friends at the launch site the day before her flight began.

Flight engineer Nespoli is a European Space Agency astronaut, and is the only member of the trio to have visited the station before having flown aboard shuttle Discovery in 2007.

On Christmas Eve, much of the world will have the opportunity to view the brightest star in the night sky as the nearly 1 million pound station flies over head.

The Johnson Space Center near Houston informed this reporter that the space station will pass over several American cities for three minutes. Sky watchers need to look after sunset as the massive complex will appear as a non-flashing star heading toward the horizon.

The newly arrived crew will also mark a milestone in spaceflight this April 12, as they help the planet celebrate humankind's first trip into space. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin departed from the same launch pad in which the Soyuz launched on Wednesday.