Soyuz TMA-20M commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, along with flight engineers Jeff Williams of NASA and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos are set to launch to the International Space Station on Friday (March 18) at 4:26 p.m. CDT (2126 GMT; 3:26 a.m. Kazakh time) from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
They will dock their Soyuz to the station's Poisk module at 10:12 p.m. CDT (0312 GMT) following a four-orbit rendezvous.
About two hours later, the hatches between the Soyuz and station will open and Ovchinin, Williams and Skripochka will be greeted by ISS Expedition 47 commander Yuri Malenchenko and flight engineers Tim Kopra and Tim Peake.
Ovchinin, Williams and Skripochka will stay aboard the space station through early September.
On Wednesday (March 16), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with Soyuz TMA-20M was rolled out to the launch pad by train and erected into position.