Russian cosmonauts will take the torch on a historic space walk Saturday After four orbits around Earth and a six-hour journey, three astronauts arrived at the International Space Station early today, bringing with them the Olympic torch that will light the Olympic flame in Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Winter Games.Flying at 260 miles above the Earth, the astronauts, aboard Russia’s Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft, approached the space station, where crew members used one of the station’s robotic arms to grab the spacecraft where it dock with the station.The new crew members, NASA’s Rick Mastracchio, Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin and Japan’s Koichi Wakata, are getting settled in the space that will be their home until May. The spacecraft docked at 5:27 a.m. today after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:14 p.m. Wednesday. The new arrivals joined the six crew members already on the space station. It’s also the first time that nine people have lived on the orbiting station since 2009 without the presence of a space shuttle. It won’t be crowded on the space station for long. On Sunday, NASA’s Karen Nyberg, Luca Parmitano with the European space agency, and Russia’s Fyodor Yurchikhin will wrap up their work on the orbiter, and ride the Soyuz spacecraft back to Earth. Before then, on Saturday, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy are set to carry out the newly arrived Olympic torch on a historic spacewalk.Trips to the space station have become faster in recent months. In March, a Soyuz spacecraft made a record-breaking six-hour journey from Earth to the space station.Historically, it has taken NASA’s space shuttle fleet, as well as Russian Soyuz spacecraft, two days from launch to rendezvous with the space station. The faster trip is possible with new techniques that were tested in three earlier unpiloted Russian cargo space crafts. NASA’s Richard Mastracchio, Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin and Japan’s Koichi Wakata arrive at the International Space Station on Thursday, in a trip that six hours and 14 minutes after launching in a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan. (Video: NASA) This article, Astronauts, Olympic torch arrive at space station, was originally published at Computerworld.com.Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon’s RSS feed . Her email address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.See more by Sharon Gaudin on Computerworld.com. Related content news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills opinion Why you’ll soon have a digital clone of your own AI isn’t going to replace you at work. You will. By Mike Elgan May 02, 2024 7 mins Augmented Reality Generative AI Virtual Reality news analysis Workers with these AI skills are getting cash premiums As AI deployments become more critical to digital transformation projects, organizations are struggling to find skilled workers to support the new technology, so they're paying premiums for prospective hires or current employees who obtain the n By Lucas Mearian May 01, 2024 7 mins Generative AI IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe