New US-Russian Crew Launches to Space Station on Soyuz Rocket
Source: Space.com
By Hanneke Weitering, Space.com Staff Writer | September 12, 2017 05:30pm ET
NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin blasted off atop a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT (2127 GMT). Packed tightly inside their Soyuz MS-06 space capsule, the trio began a 6-hour flight to the ISS after a flawless launch sequence. "Everything is nominal on board [and] the crew is doing fine," a translator for Russia's Mission Control Center in Moscow repeatedly announced during a live webcast as the Soyuz MS-06 soared into the sky.
The Soyuz is expected to arrive at the space station's Poisk module today, at 10:57 p.m. EDT, 5 hours and 40 minutes after the launch (0257 GMT on Sept. 13). "A series of burns over the next several hours will gradually raise their orbit as they chase down the space station," NASA TV commentator Rob Navias said during the launch. You can watch the docking live here on Space.com.
At the station, they will meet up with the other half of Expedition 53, three crewmembers who arrived at the ISS in July: NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli. Before they open the hatch, the crew will spend about an hour and a half performing a series of tests and checks on the Soyuz. The hatch is scheduled to open early Wednesday morning (Sept. 13) at about 12:40 a.m. EDT (0440 GMT). [Space Station Photos: Expedition 53 Mission Crew in Orbit]
Expedition 53 flight engineers Mark Vande Hei (top) and Joe Acaba, and Soyuz Cmdr. Alexander Misurkin (bottom) wave farewell before boarding their Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday (Sept. 13)
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