Soyuz TMA-14M launches with new space station crew, tiger toys and river water

Russia's first woman to fly into space in nearly 20 years lifted off to the International Space Station on Thursday (Sept. 25), together with a NASA shuttle pilot and a cosmonaut returning to the orbiting laboratory.

Elena Serova, who is Russia's fourth female cosmonaut in history, launched alongside Butch Wilmore and Alexander Samokutyaev on the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launched at 3:25 p.m. CDT (2025 GMT; 2:25 a.m. local time Sept. 26), the trio are set to arrive at the space station at 9:16 p.m. CDT (0216 GMT) after circling the Earth four times.

Soyuz TMA-14M docks to space station

Soyuz TMA-14M commander Alexander Samokutyaev and flight engineers Butch Wilmore and Elena Serova safely docked to the space-facing Poisk module of the International Space Station on Wednesday (Sept. 25) at 9:11 p.m. CDT (0211 GMT Sept. 26).

Upon reaching its preliminary orbit following a flawless launch, only one of two power-producing solar arrays on the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft deployed. The crew aboard the Soyuz and Russian flight controllers discussed the status of the spacecraft, which otherwise was in perfect shape, and so they pressed on to the space station.

(Shortly after the docking, the port-side solar array fully deployed.)

There are now five spacecraft docked to the station, its maximum visiting vehicle capacity. There are two Soyuz vehicles, one Progress resupply ship, ESA Georges Lemaître ATV-5 and the SpaceX Dragon commercial space freighter that arrived Tuesday morning.

Hatches between the Soyuz and the space station will open around 10:55 p.m. CDT after leak and pressure checks. The TMA-14M crew will then float into their new home for a welcoming ceremony and congratulatory calls from family, friends and mission officials at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Soyuz TMA-14M returns trio to Earth after 167 days on space station

A U.S. astronaut and two cosmonauts from Russia returned to Earth on Wednesday night (March 11), after 167 days aboard the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, who commanded the space station's Expedition 42, landed with Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos. The three touched down in Russia's Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft on the snow-covered steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan.

The parachute and retro-thruster-assisted landing at about 9:07 p.m. CST (0207 GMT; 8:07 a.m. local time on March 12) came three hours after the trio undocked Soyuz TMA-14M from the zenith, or space-facing, port of the station's Russian Poisk module. The crew's departure at 5:44 p.m. CST marked a formal end to Expedition 42 and the start of Expedition 43.