Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka along with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly lifted off aboard Soyuz TMA-01M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Thursday at 6:10 p.m. CDT (Friday, Kazakhstan time) beginning their two-day journey to the International Space Station (ISS).
Less than ten minutes after launch, the spacecraft -- the first in a new line of Russian spacecraft upgraded with a digital telemetry system and digital flight computer -- reached orbit and its antennae and solar arrays were deployed.
The trio will dock Soyuz TMA-01M to the station's Poisk mini-research module on Saturday at 7:02 p.m. CDT to join the Expedition 25 crew, starting their five-month tour of duty aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Welcoming them aboard will be current ISS residents, Expedition 25 commander Doug Wheelock and flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Shannon Walker. Wheelock, Yurchikhin and Walker arrived June 17 aboard the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft.
The six-person crew will usher in the second decade of continuous human presence onboard the station, continuing scientific research and maintenance activities, which began with the first crew arriving in November 2000.
Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi
The TMA-01 crewmates will welcome multiple vehicles to the station during their months-long stay. In addition to Russia's Soyuz and Progress, JAXA's HTV and ESA's ATV, the trio will be aboard for the arrival of two of the last NASA space shuttle missions.
The second of those missions, STS-134, which is targeted to arrive in late February 2011, will be commanded by Kelly's twin brother, Mark. The mission is currently planned as the last flight of the U.S. space shuttle program.
Skripochka is scheduled to conduct three spacewalks, including one with Yurchikhin in mid-November to work on science experiments and hardware outside the station's Russian segment.
Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin are scheduled to return to Earth on Nov. 29. Before departing, Wheelock will hand over command of the station to Kelly for Expedition 26, which will begin with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-19.
Roscosmos' Dimitry Kondratyev, NASA's Cady Coleman and ESA's Paolo Nespoli will join Kelly, Kaleri and Skripochka in mid-December to complete the Expedition 26 crew.