Russia's Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft carrying a crew of three has docked with the International Space Station (ISS), Mission Control said Wednesday.

The spacecraft docked with the ISS in an automated mode at 1:48 a.m. Moscow time Wednesday [22:48 GMT Tuesday].

The crew, comprising Russian Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut Timothy Creamer and Japan's Soichi Noguchi, are joining the current ISS crew of U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian Maxim Surayev, who have been on the ISS since early October.

The Soyuz was launched early Monday from Russia's Baikonur Space Center in southern Kazakhstan.

The crew will stay on board the ISS until May. They will have a great deal of work to do during their stay, in particular, to receive U.S. shuttles and Russian Progress spacecraft, conduct scientific experiments and make spacewalks.

MISSION CONTROL (Moscow Region), December 23 (RIA Novosti)