This afternoon, half way around the world in Kazakhstan, a Russian spacecraft will launch at 4:02 p.m. Connecticut carrying three people to the worldwide Space Station.
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The rocket lifted on schedule from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The spacecraft will be manned by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japan’s Kimiya Yui. The launch facilities are operated by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, to which the Kazakh government has them leased until 2050.
Astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui, and Oleg Kononenko are launching to the global Space Station, as part of the second portion of Expedition 44.
The capsule connected to the orbiting laboratory about 250 miles (400 kilometres) above Earth at 0145 GMT.
Yesterday’s launch was postponed by about two months after the April failure of an unmanned Russian cargo ship, which raised concerns about Russian rocketry. Those would be the first crew-hauling missions for the US space program, following the use of commercial providers to loft satellites and freight.
After weeks of investigating, Roscosmos attributed the mishap to a faulty linkup between the Progress spacecraft and the Soyuz rocket’s third stage.
Another Progress successfully launched cargo to the ISS early this month, and NASA agreed the Soyuz was safe to launch.
Only nine minutes elapsed between takeoff and separation.
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Once on board, Lindgren, who is a doctor, will help USA astronaut Scott Kelly as he continues his one-year mission in space. The three crew members should link up with the space outpost late Wednesday, with docking expected at about 10:46 p.m. ET.
