Space Station Crew is Back Up to Six!

The International Space Station bumped it's crew back up to 6 today once the Russian Soyuz rocket carrying three members of Expedition 33 docked to the ISS early this morning!  While I'm not thrilled to be completely relying on Russia for all of NASA's human-rated launching needs, I have to admit that the Soyuz rocket is a pretty impressive piece of machinery.  The angled out rockets on the lower portion have a very cool design aesthetic too.  It pretty much hasn't changed much since the 60's, which is probably why I'm a fan!  Today's Increasing the Awesome video is of the Soyuz launch from earlier this week.  Compared to NASA's launching methods, the Russian set up looks pretty wonky to me, which is why I find it so fascinating to watch it in action.  You also get to see some cool shots of the Astronaut and two Cosmonauts inside of the rocket during ascent!

(top NASA image from here)