Expedition 49 crewmembers
Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Sergey Ryzhikov
and Andrey Borisenko of
the Russian space agency Roscosmos join hands in front of
their Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft during a pre-launch training fit check at the
Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan.
Credits: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
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Three crew members headed to the International Space Station are scheduled to launch on Friday, Sept. 23. Live launch coverage will begin at 1:15 p.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, along with cosmonauts Sergey
Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will
launch at 2:16 p.m. from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (12:16 a.m.
Sept. 24, Baikonur time). The Expedition 49/50 crew will spend approximately
five months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in
late February.
Between launch and docking to the space station, the trio will
spend two days in the Soyuz MS-02 testing upgrades to the spacecraft’s various
systems. The team will dock to the space station’s Poisk module at 3:32 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 25. NASA TV coverage of the docking will begin at 2:45 p.m.
Hatches between the Soyuz and station will open at approximately
6:10 p.m. Sunday, and NASA TV coverage of hatch opening and welcoming
ceremonies will begin at 5:45 p.m. The arriving crew will be welcomed by
Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers
Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency, who have been on the station since July.
The soon-to-be six crew members of Expedition 49 will continue
work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and
Earth science aboard humanity’s only microgravity laboratory.
Check out the full NASA TV schedule and video streaming
information at:
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crews, at:
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