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New Crew Blasts Off Heading to Space Station Today

The Soyuz MS-11 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station at 6:31 a.m. EST Monday, Dec. 3 (5:31 p.m. in Baikonur) and have safely reached orbit.  At the time of launch, the station was flying about 250 miles over central Kazakhstan southwest of the capital of Astana, 405 miles ahead of the Soyuz as it leaves the launch pad.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Konenenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos have begun their six-hour trip to the orbital laboratory where they will live and work for the next six-and-a-half months.

The arrival will briefly restore the station’s crew complement to six as they join Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) and Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, who are scheduled to remain aboard the station until Dec. 20.

Just days after their arrival, the crew members will capture the SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft set to launch Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and deliver more than 5,800 pounds of critical research and supplies.

At 9:30 a.m., NASA TV will broadcast from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida a briefing to highlight the science and research on board the Dragon.

Following the science briefing, NASA TV will then broadcast beginning at 11:15 a.m. the arrival of the agency’s first asteroid sample return mission as the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is set to rendezvous with asteroid Bennu.

Coverage of the Soyuz docking to the International Space Station will begin on NASA TV’s media channel and the agency’s website beginning at 11:45 a.m. and be broadcast on all channels following the conclusion of OSIRIS-REx coverage expected at 12:15 p.m., with the spacecraft docking expected at 12:36 p.m.

Coverage of the hatch opening between the Soyuz and the space station will begin at 1:45 p.m.

For continued 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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Mark Garcia

Watch NASA TV Now to See New Crew Launch to Station

Live launch coverage is underway on NASA Television and the agency’s website for the targeted lift off at 6:31 a.m. EST (5:31 p.m. in Baikonur) of a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Konenenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will begin a six-hour journey to the International Space Station.

The three will join Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. The crew members will continue important research experiments in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.

This is the first spaceflight for both McClain and Saint-Jacques and the fourth trip to the space station for Kononenko.

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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Mark Garcia

Live on NASA TV Now, Watch New Crew Blast Off to Station

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, teams are making final preparations for the launch of Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Konenenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos to the International Space Station. Their journey to the station will begin with a lift off at 6:31 a.m. EST Monday (5:31 p.m. in Baikonur). Live launch coverage will begin at 5:30 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

The three will join Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos. Auñón-Chancellor, Gerst and Prokopyev are scheduled to remain aboard the station until Dec. 20; Expedition 58 officially begins when they undock from the space station.

McClain, Saint-Jacques and Konenenko will spend more than six months conducting hundreds of science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development, providing the foundation for continuing human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. Some of the investigations they will conduct are sponsored by the U.S. National Laboratory on the space station, which Congress designated in 2005 to maximize its use for improving quality of life on Earth. Highlights of upcoming investigations include experiments in forest observation, robotic refueling, and satellite deployment.

Below is the crew’s launch timeline in EST:

Monday, Dec. 3

12:31:53am     6:00              Crew departs Cosmonaut Hotel
12:46:53am     5:45              Batteries installed in booster
1:16:53am     5:15              Crew arrives at Site 254
1:31:53am     5:00              Tanking begins
2:01:53am     4:30              Crew suit up
2:26:53am     4:05              Booster loaded with liquid oxygen
3:01:53am     3:30              Crew meets family members on other side of the glass
3:26:53am     3:05              First and second stage oxygen fueling complete
3:31:53am     3:00              Crew walkout from 254 and boards bus for the launch pad
3:36:53am     2:55              Crew departs for launch pad (Site 1)
3:56:53am     2:35              Crew arrives at launch pad (Site 1)
4:06:53am     2:25              Crew boards Soyuz; strapped in to the Descent module
4:56:53am     1:35              Descent module hardware tested
5:11:53am     1:20              Hatch closed; leak checks begin
5:30:00am    1:01:53        NASA TV LAUNCH COVERAGE BEGINS
5:31:53am     1:00              Launch vehicle control system prep; gyro activation
5:45:00am      :46:53        NASA TV: Crew pre-launch activities B-roll played)
5:46:53am       :45:00        Pad service structure components lowered
5:47:53am       :44:00        Clamshell gantry service towers retracted
5:54:53am       :37:00        Suit leak checks begin; descent module testing complete
5:57:53am       :34:00        Emergency escape system armed
6:16:53am       :15:00        Suit leak checks complete; escape system to auto
6:21:53am       :10:00         Gyros in flight readiness and recorders activated
6:24:53am       :07:00         Pre-launch operations complete
6:25:53am       :06:00         Launch countdown operations to auto; vehicle ready
6:26:53am       :05:00         Commander’s controls activated
6:27:53am       :04:00         Combustion chamber nitrogen purge
6:28:53am       :03:00         Propellant drainback
6:29:10am       :02:43         Booster propellant tank pressurization
6:30:23am       :01:30         Ground propellant feed terminated
6:30:43am      :01:10       ISS flies directly over the Baikonur Cosmodrome
6:30:53am       :01:00         Vehicle to internal power
6:31:18am       :00:35         First umbilical tower separates
Auto sequence start
6:31:23am       :00:30         Ground umbilical to third stage disconnected
6:31:38am       :00:15         Second umbilical tower separates
6:31:41am       :00:12         Launch command issued
Engine Start Sequence Begins
6:31:43am       :00:10         Engine turbo pumps at flight speed
6:31:48am       :00:05        Engines at maximum thrust
6:31:53am      :00:00       LAUNCH OF SOYUZ MS-11 TO THE ISS
6:40:38am       +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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Mark Garcia

Spacewalk Preps and Muscle Research Keep Crew Busy

A Russian spacewalk is planned before three Expedition 57 crew members return to Earth aboard a Soyuz spacecraft just before Christmas. Meanwhile, in the middle of the spacewalk and departure preparations, the International Space Station residents today also explored how living in space impacts the human muscle system.

Flight Engineer Sergey Prokopyev will work outside the space station Dec. 11 to inspect the Soyuz MS-09 crew vessel. The first-time spacewalker will join veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko for a scheduled 6-hour inspection on the outside of the spaceship that will return the Expedition 57 crew home Dec. 19 U.S. time.

Prokopyev checked the Orlan spacesuits today that he and Kononenko will wear during the eighth spacewalk of the year. Expedition 57 Commander Alexander Gerst and Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor assisted Prokopyev checking the Russian spacesuits for leaks.

Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor then moved on to a study that has been ongoing aboard the orbital lab since September of 2017 observing how muscles adapt to outer space. The duo set up the Columbus lab module for research operations and scanned their head and foot muscles with an ultrasound device. The data may help doctors improve fitness in space and develop treatments for muscle and aging problems on Earth.

Back on Earth, on opposite sides of the globe, a pair of rockets are getting ready to send a new crew and more science and supplies to the space station. Russia’s Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft will launch Kononenko and fellow crew members Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques from Kazakhstan to the station on Monday at 6:31 a.m. EST. The following day at 1:38 p.m. in Florida, the SpaceX Dragon will blast off to the station to deliver more than 5,600 pounds of cargo to resupply the station residents.

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Mark Garcia

Station Crews Ramping Up for Busy December

December is shaping up to be a heavy traffic period at the International Space Station. Two crews will swap places before Christmas and a U.S. spaceship will deliver new supplies and science. A Russian spacewalk is also planned for a crew vehicle inspection.

The Expedition 57 crew onboard the station today continued preparing for the upcoming missions while researching space science. Commander Alexander Gerst cleaned cooling loops in U.S. spacesuits as Flight Engineer Sergey Prokopyev prepared the Soyuz MS-09 crew vessel for next month’s undocking. Astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor worked on commercial science gear, semiconductor crystal observations and space gardening.

Monday and Tuesday are launch days for a new crew and a cargo delivery. Two new astronauts and a veteran cosmonaut are set to blast off first on Monday at 6:31 a.m. EST aboard the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft. Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko flanked by new Expedition 58 Flight Engineers Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques will dock to the station’s Poisk module just six hours and five minutes later.

The very next day, the SpaceX Dragon commercial resupply ship will launch on its 16^th mission to the orbital laboratory with a variety of new science experiments at 1:38 p.m. Dragon will orbit Earth for two days before reaching a point about 10 meters from the station where it will be captured with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Following those two critical arrivals at the orbital laboratory, cosmonauts Prokopyev and Oleg Kononenko will exit the station for the third Russian spacewalk of the year on Dec. 11. The duo will wear their Orlan spacesuits for about six hours of inspection work on the Soyuz MS-09 crew craft docked to the Rassvet module.

After the vehicle inspection, the Soyuz MS-09 will return to Earth Dec. 20 bringing home the Expedition 57 crew after six and a half months in space. Auñón-Chancellor and Gerst will sit on either side of Soyuz Commander Prokopyev as he leads the trio to a parachuted landing in Kazakhstan at 12:03 a.m.

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Mark Garcia