Those upgrades include “a new digital video transmitter and encoder to send engineering video of the ship’s approach to the station for docking, a new relay telemetry capability along with an upgraded Kurs automated rendezvous antenna and an improved satellite navigation system to better calculate the Soyuz’s position in space”.
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The Soyuz MS spacecraft carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, prior the launch at …
“I think it’s a really good opportunity to talk to kids about science, and combine that with some of the interest in space and the fantastic things we’re doing on the space station”, she said of the video presentations during an interview June 1.
Before joining NASA, Rubins was a molecular biologist specializing in infectious diseases. Onishi, who is a trained pilot, was selected as an astronaut candidate in 2009 as well (by JAXA), and he was a part of NEEMO 15, a 2011 NASA research mission in which six “aquanauts” lived in an underwater lab testing new technologies for exploring an asteroid. (His last launch from Baikonur was on a snow-filled winter day). The Soyuz also boasts more photovoltaic cells on its solar panels, which will provide added power, and additional shielding against micrometeoroid debris.
According to NASA, the Soyuz is scheduled to dock early Saturday morning.
Rubins, Ivanishin and Onishi will test modified spacecraft systems for two days, before docking with the space station. Once Rubins is on board, she will be working on a number of important science experiments and will make history as the first person to sequence DNA in space.
The crew joins its other Expedition 48 crewmembers: Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos.
His journey to the ISS where he will participate in experiments connected to the Japanese space agency’s Kibo program coincides with the Tanabata star festival celebrated across his homeland. Rubins and Onishi are both first-time fliers.
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And then the real work will begin.
