A new Soyuz spaceship rolled out to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today as the Russian Federal Space Agency geared up for the launch later this week of a fresh crew bound for the International Space Station.U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts -- Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka -- are scheduled to blast off from the central Asian spaceport at 7:10 p.m. Thursday, thundering off on a two-day trip to the international outpost. The trio are scheduled to dock at 8:01 p.m. Saturday.
Live launch coverage will begin here in The Flame Trench at 6:15 p.m. Thursday. Docking coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and coverage of a hatch-opening ceremony will follow at 10:30 p.m. Saturday. The welcome ceremony is expected to get started about 11:01 p.m. Saturday.
The Soyuz spacecraft was mated to its carrier rocket over the weekend and then rolled out of its assembly hangar in the overnight hours today. It was transported by rail to the same launch pad where Yuri Gagarin blasted off on April 12, 1961, becoming the first human to fly in space.Kelly, Kaleri and Skripochka will join a station crew that includes U.S. astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker as well as Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin. The six space travelers will be onboard Nov. 1, when NASA and its 15 international partners celebrate a decade of continuous human presence on the outpost.
NOTE ON IMAGES: Click to enlarge the Associated Press pool photos transmitted from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo Credit: AP/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool.
8 comments:
Pretty soon we will be prepping our own heavy lift rocket for missions after the Shuttles imminent retirement .Wait a minute ,I forgot ,we don't have a man rated heavy lift rocket anymore .wonder what Genius did that to a Space Program the envy of the world until now .Did we cancel something that was following the Shuttle shortsightedly ? Why yes we Can !
Sylvain from Montreal,
Just visited Mr. Rubio s site, did not see anything clear for
the future of NASA in is ISSUES section, and this guy is run-
ning for half of your state s senate voice so to speake.
There is only a vaghe and nebulus declaration on the Apollo 11
anniversary that in my view is the politicaly minimun neccesa-
ry to please the gallery. What would he do if he wins. Will
he try to bring back the Moon goal, Does he support the posi-
tion or vision embodied in the 2011 budget just voted in the
house. nothing on that, nothing clear or specific.
Hold is feet to the fire on this or you might regret your vote
as mush as those of yo who voted for obama now do.
Until next time.
Soyuz... the future of American human spaceflight?
Negative, spaceraceleadership...there IS no future for American human spaceflight.
I will say this for that design of rocket. Sergay corollevs(excuse spelling) R7(designed in the 1950's) soyuz rocket is still going strong after all these years,with one or two upgrades.It's solid,but the Saturn 5 and the shuttle were and are mind blowing..!!
In my personal view the Ares system was and still is the best replacement for the shuttle. But someone(who you all know) has just shafted NASA on that, and wasted 10 yes 10 billion dollars in developement work.It's TOTALLY CRAZY.!!!
I agree with Graham.
Ares 1 was the best solution to replace the shuttles, But if they were going to do away whith it in favor of lets say Space Xs Falcom 9 for LEO, devellopement of the Ares 5 upgraded to a four SRBs version so that you put everything on top neccesary for a manned Moon landing. Of cource congress whent along
whith cancelling that goal. Stupid and shortsighted.
Obama says tho goal is Mars, if he means it then America will nead at least a 150 tons to LEO booster right. yet he just cancelled it. Even for is, or should I say Garver s plan for an asteroid visit, that would barely be enough. The big language in the latest bill to pass the House of reps. is a
farse. They would have done better to pass a continuing re-
solution whith strong legal warnings that nothing is to be
changed for at least a year, that would have stopped the rai-
ding of the Constellation progam.
Hopefully, someone will succeed in restoring language to mi-
nimyze the tonnage of the big booster to at least made it pos-
sible for the next president to make the Moon the firts place
to visit and explore, where else do these idiots conselling
pres. Obama expect to gain the experiance needed to go to
Mars. or even the vague and rediculus plan to go to an aste-
roid.
S. from Montreal
I believe there's another, much larger, issue here that's unaddressed: what happens if Russia, like the U.S., no longer places an economic priority on their space program? No doubt they, too, could save needed billions for other social programs. What will the effect be on manned space flight then? The ISS will fall into decay, deteriorate in orbit and crash and burn like the Skylab of old - billions wasted - thrown away due to polical short-sidedness and partisan politics. The dreams of the this generation needs igniting - an expansion beyond the common thug or self-indulgent pro athlete. Like it or lump it, JFK, in this regard, was a visionary who imparted dreams to a generation. His current, simliarly affiliated successor has dashed that vision on the crags of indifference.
Robert Jensen
Rockledge, FL
Robert Jenson thats great comment, and S from montreal.
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