posted 09-23-2013 10:30 AM               

Soyuz TMA-10M ready for launch

Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, Expedition 37/38 flight engineer Sergey Ryazansky also of Roscosmos, and flight engineer Michael Hopkins of NASA are set to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday (Sept. 25) at 3:58 p.m. CDT (2058 GMT; 2:58 a.m. local time Sept. 26), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

They will dock their Soyuz to the station's Poisk module at 9:47 p.m. CDT (0247 GMT Sept. 26) following a four-orbit rendezvous.

About two hours later, the hatches between Soyuz TMA-10M and station will open and Kotov, Ryazansky and Hopkins will be greeted by ISS Expedition 37 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA and flight engineer Luca Parmitano of ESA, who have been on board the orbiting laboratory since late May.

Kotov, Ryazansky and Hopkins will stay on the space station until mid-March. Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will return to Earth on Nov. 11, leaving Kotov as Expedition 38 commander.

On Monday (Sept. 23), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft was rolled out to the launch pad by train and erected into position.

Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

See here to discuss the Soyuz TMA-10M mission to the space station.

posted 09-25-2013 04:16 PM               

Russia launches Soyuz TMA-10M crew to space station

A veteran Russian space station commander, the grandson of a Soviet rocket scientist and the first among NASA's 2009 class of astronauts to fly in space set off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday (Sept. 25), where they will see the arrival of the Olympic torch and the first of a new type of American private cargo spaceship.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, together with NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, launched on board the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft for a same day arrival at the orbiting outpost. Riding atop a Soyuz-FG booster, the three lifted off from Roscosmos' Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:58 p.m. CDT (2058 GMT; 2:58 a.m. local time Sept. 26).

Flying a four-orbit rendezvous, the TMA-10M crew is scheduled to dock with the space station's Poisk mini-research module at 9:48 p.m. CDT (0248 GMT Sept. 26).

posted 09-26-2013 12:34 AM               

Soyuz TMA-10M docks at space station

New Expedition 37 crew members Oleg Kotov, Michael Hopkins and Sergey Ryazanskiy were welcomed aboard the International Space Station Wednesday (Sept. 25) at 11:34 p.m. CDT (0434 GMT Sept. 26).

They docked to the Poisk mini-research module at 9:45 p.m. CDT (0245 GMT Sept. 26) aboard the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft.

posted 03-10-2014 10:55 PM               

Soyuz TMA-10M crew lands on Earth after 166 days on space station

Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut returned to a frigid homecoming Monday (March 10), landing on the windswept and snow covered steppe of Kazakhstan after 166 days aboard the International Space Station.

Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos and Michael Hopkins of NASA touched down onboard Soyuz TMA-10M southeast of the Kazkh town Dzhezkazgan at 10:24 p.m. CDT (0324 GMT; 9:24 a.m. local time March 11).