A crew of Russia’s Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft is preparing to dock with the International Space Station on Thursday, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control said.

The docking of the spacecraft, launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday afternoon, is scheduled for 16:35 Moscow time (12:35 GMT) and will be carried out in an automated mode.

The Expedition 33/34 crew comprises Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin, as well as NASA astronaut Kevin Ford.

They will join the current crew consisting of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide.

Russian Soyuz-family spacecraft remain the only means of transportation for crew members to and from the orbital station until at least 2015.