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Expedition 59 Prepares to Launch to Station

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, teams are making final preparations for the launch of NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch, and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, to the International Space Station. Their journey to the station will begin with a lift off at 3:14 p.m. EDT (12:14 a.m. March 15 Kazakhstan time). Live launch coverage will begin at 2 p.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

The trio’s arrival will return the orbiting laboratory’s population to six, including three NASA astronauts. This launch will also mark the fourth Expedition crew with two female astronauts. The three will join station commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency. The new crew members will dock to the Rassvet module at 9:07 p.m. Expedition 59 will begin officially at the time of docking.

Hague and Ovchinin are completing a journey that was cut short Oct. 11, when a booster separation problem with their Soyuz rocket’s first stage triggered a launch abort two minutes into the flight. They landed safely a few minutes later, after reaching the fringes of space, and were reassigned to fly again after McClain, Kononenko and Saint-Jacques launched in early December. This will be Ovchinin’s third flight into space, the second for Hague and the first for Koch. Hague, Koch, and McClain are from NASA’s 2013 astronaut class, half of which were women—the highest percentage of female astronaut candidates ever selected for a class.

Below is the crew’s launch timeline in EDT:

Thursday, March 14

EDT              L-Hr/M/Sec    Event

• 6:14:09am    9:00                 Crew wakeup at Cosmonaut Hotel
• 9:14:09am    6:00                 Crew departs Cosmonaut Hotel
• 9:29:09am    5:45                 Batteries installed in booster
• 9:59:09am    5:15                  Crew arrives at Site 254
• 10:14:09am   5:00                 Tanking begins
• 10:44:09am  4:30                 Crew suit up
• 11:09:09am   4:05                 Booster loaded with liquid Oxygen
• 11:44:09am   3:30                 Crew meets family members on other side of the glass
• 12:09:09pm  3:05                First and second stage oxygen fueling complete
• 12:14:09pm   3:00                Crew walkout from 254 and boards bus for the launch pad
• 12:19:09pm   2:55                Crew departs for launch pad (Site 1)
• 12:39:09pm   2:35                Crew arrives at launch pad (Site 1)
• 12:49:09pm   2:25               Crew boards Soyuz; strapped in to the Descent module
• 1:39:09pm      1:35                Descent module hardware tested
• 1:54:09pm      1:20                Hatch closed; leak checks begin
• 2:00:00pm      1:14:09           NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE BEGINS
• 2:14:09pm      1:00                Launch vehicle control system prep; gyro activation
• 2:15:00pm        :59:09             NASA TV: Crew pre-launch activities B-roll played)
• 2:29:09pm     :45:00            Pad service structure components lowered
• 2:30:09pm     :44:00            Clamshell gantry service towers retracted
• 2:37:09pm     :37:00             Suit leak checks begin; descent module testing complete
• 2:40:09pm     :34:00            Emergency escape system armed
• 2:59:09pm     :15:00             Suit leak checks complete; escape system to auto
• 3:04:09pm     :10:00             Gyros in flight readiness and recorders activated
• 3:07:09pm     :07:00             Pre-launch operations complete
• 3:08:09pm     :06:00            Launch countdown operations to auto; vehicle ready
• 3:09:09pm     :05:00            Commander’s controls activated
• 3:09:56pm       :04:13              ISS flies directly over the Baikonur Cosmodrome 
• 3:10:09pm      :04:00            Combustion chamber nitrogen purge
• 3:11:09pm       :03:00            Propellant drainback
• 3:11:26pm       :02:43            Booster propellant tank pressurization
• 3:12:39pm      :01:30             Ground propellant feed terminated
• 3:13:09pm       01:00             Vehicle to internal power
• 3:13:34pm      :00:35             First umbilical tower separates

Auto sequence start

• 3:13:39pm     :00:30            Ground umbilical to third stage disconnected
• 3:13:54pm     :00:15             Second umbilical tower separates
• 3:13:57pm     :00:12             Launch command issued

Engine Start Sequence Begins

• 3:13:59pm      :00:10            Engine turbo pumps at flight speed
• 3:14:04pm     :00:05            Engines at maximum thrust
• 3:14:09pm       :00:00            LAUNCH OF SOYUZ MS-12 TO THE ISS
• 3:22:54pm     +8:45               Third stage shutdown; Soyuz orbital insertion

For launch coverage and more information about the mission, visit: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/. Get space station news, images and features via social media on Instagram at: @iss, ISS on Facebook, and on Twitter @Space_Station and @ISS_Research.

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Norah Moran

Housekeeping and Maintenance Punctuate Last Full Day of Expedition 58

The last full day of Expedition 58—before the launch, docking and consolidation of crews to become Expedition 59—was mostly spent on housekeeping items for the continued, successful operation of the International Space Station. 

NASA astronaut Anne McClain floated through the Tranquility and Zvezda service modules, deploying acoustic monitors. She paused in the U.S. lab at an EXPRESS rack to install communications gear and perform additional maintenance. David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency also worked with EXPRESS today, moving Space Automated Bioproduct Labs from rack-1 to rack-2. This miniature laboratory within the larger orbiting laboratory supports life science research, hosting microorganisms (bacteria, yeast, algae, fungi, viruses, etc.), small organisms, animal cells, tissue cultures and small plants for evaluation in space.  

Expedition Commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos replaced fuel bottles on the Combustion Integrated Rack, which allows the crew members to conduct fluids and combustion studies in microgravity. 

Today in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch, and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, were certified for flight by the Russian state commission and held their final news conference.  

Tomorrow, the soon-to-be station residents will hitch a ride aboard a Soyuz MS-12 for blastoff at 3:14 p.m. EDT on, coincidentally, 3/14. After a relatively speedy six-hour flight, the Soyuz is expected to dock to station’s Rassvet module at 9:07 p.m. Expedition 59 will begin officially at the time of docking. 

The events will unfold live on NASA TV, with launch coverage beginning at 2 p.m. and docking coverage at 8:15 p.m., respectively. After a brief break, tune in at 10:30 p.m. for the hatch opening and welcome, which will return the orbiting laboratory’s population to six—including three NASA astronauts. And, just in time for Women’s History Month, this launch marks the fourth Expedition crew with two female astronauts.  

Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Catherine Williams

Before Launch and Spacewalks, Science Reigns Supreme Aboard Orbiting Lab

As the Soyuz MS-12 that will carry the Expedition 59 crew to the International Space Station Thursday was erected on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 58 resumed research and routine maintenance after their off-duty day Monday. 

NASA astronaut Anne McClain conducted botany work with the VEG-03 experiment, which builds on what scientists have initially learned about harvesting vegetation in space with VEG-01. This time around, testing will demonstrate plant growth with a new batch of crops, including red romaine lettuce, extra dwarf Pak Choi, red Russian kale and wasabi mustard. McClain also spent time on life-support system upkeep in the Kibo lab module and maintenance in the U.S. lab on an EXPRESS rack—hardware integral to providing structural interfaces and support for science experiments with power, data, cooling, water and other items needed for successful operations. 

In the Quest airlock, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques completed additional prep work for upcoming spacewalks slated for March 22, 29 and April 8 by scrubbing cooling loops and performing leak checks on the spacesuits. After resupplying the Human Research Facility-2 rack, Saint Jacques added input to a questionnaire for Behavioral Core Measures, an investigation that seeks to create a standardized toolkit to rapidly and reliably assess the risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and psychiatric disorders that could occur with longer space missions. 

Meanwhile, Commander Oleg Kononenko from Roscosmos ticked off additional maintenance tasks by cleaning panels in the Zvezda service module and performing fluid transfers to the Progress 71 resupply ship. 

Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Catherine Williams

Station Crews Take a Breather in Anticipation of Launch on March 14

This Monday, the Expedition 58 crew is taking a well-deserved break after a busy week prior wrapping up SpaceX’s inaugural flight of Crew Dragon to the International Space Station during Demonstration Mission-1, an uncrewed flight test. The vehicle departed station for a splashdown off the Florida Space Coast at 8:45 a.m. EST Friday, bringing NASA even closer to sending astronauts into space from American soil. 

The Expedition 59 crew, which will soon get their turn in orbit, is taking time to relax and review their launch day flight plan at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On March 14, Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch are set to blastoff at 3:14 p.m. EDT and dock less than six hours later to the Rassvet module at the orbiting laboratory. Research investigations will get a boost in productivity with their arrival, which will bring the full crew complement to six. All launch and docking events will be carried live on NASA TV. 

Tomorrow, the Soyuz MS-12 that will carry the new crew crawls to the launch pad at Baikonur as Expedition 58 resumes science studies. 

Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Catherine Williams

Expedition 58 Crew Congratulates NASA and SpaceX after Crew Dragon Departure

On behalf of the Expedition 58 crew, NASA Astronaut Anne McClain takes time to congratulate the NASA and SpaceX teams immediately following the Crew Dragon spacecraft’s undocking from the International Space Station at 2:32 a.m. EST Friday, March 8.

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Norah Moran