Korolyov, Russia ? A Russian spacecraft carrying a Russian-U.S.-Dutch crew docked smoothly today with the international space station.

The Soyuz TM-4, working on autopilot, docked ahead of schedule at 9:01 local time (11:01 p.m. Tuesday CDT), approximately two days after blasting off on a rocket from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Carrying three astronauts, it was the third Russian spacecraft to fill in for the U.S. space shuttle, which has been suspended since the Columbia disaster last year.

Russian commander Gennady Padalka and American flight engineer Michael Fincke’s mission will be to maintain the orbital outpost, whose assembly has been on hold since the February 2003 disaster. Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands will conduct experiments for the European Space Agency.