posted 03-25-2015 05:33 AM               

Soyuz TMA-16M poised for launch

Soyuz TMA-16M commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, together with flight engineer Scott Kelly of NASA, are set to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday (March 27) at 2:42 p.m. CDT (1942 GMT; 1:42 a.m. local time March 28), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

They will dock their Soyuz to the station's Poisk module at 8:36 p.m. CDT (0136 GMT) following a four-orbit rendezvous.

About two hours later, the hatches between Soyuz TMA-16M and the station will open and Padalka, Kornienko and Kelly will be greeted by Expedition 43 commander Terry Virts of NASA and flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA, who have been on board the orbiting laboratory since last November.

Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year on the space station to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to the harsh environment of space. Data from the expedition will be used to determine whether there are ways to further reduce the risks on future long-duration missions to an asteroid and eventually Mars.

Padalka will spend six months aboard the outpost, during which he will become the first four-time station commander and record holder for most cumulative time spent in space.

Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti will return to Earth on May 14, leaving Padalka as Expedition 44 commander.

On Wednesday (March 25), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft was rolled out to the launch pad by train and erected into position.

posted 03-27-2015 02:57 PM               

Historic yearlong mission crew launches to space station on Soyuz TMA-16M

An American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut have embarked on a historic yearlong mission into space to support future human journeys to Mars.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko left the Earth for the International Space Station on Friday (March 27), launching at 2:42 p.m. CDT (1942 GMT; 1:42 a.m. local time March 28) from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Commanding their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft was Roscosmos cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who will stay onboard the space station for the more typical six months, but will set a new record for cumulative time in space in the process.

Lifting off atop a Soyuz-FG rocket from the same launch pad where the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, left the Earth on April 12, 1961, the Soyuz TMA-16M crew entered a four-orbit, 6-hour trajectory to rendezvous and dock with the space station's Poisk module at about 8:35 p.m. CDT (0135 GMT).

posted 03-27-2015 08:35 PM               

Soyuz TMA-16M docks to space station

Soyuz TMA-16M commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly safely docked to the space-facing Poisk module of the International Space Station on Friday (March 27) at 8:33 p.m. CDT (0133 GMT March 28) as the two spacecraft were orbiting 252 statute miles above Earth, just off the western coast of Colombia.

Hatches between the Soyuz and the space station were opened at 10:33 p.m. CDT after leak and pressure checks.

The TMA-16M crew then floated into their new home for a welcoming ceremony and congratulatory calls from family, friends and mission officials at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

posted 08-28-2015 07:13 AM               

Soyuz TMA-16M relocated to service module

ISS Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka, together with flight engineers Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko took a brief flight aboard Soyuz TMA-16M on Friday (Aug. 28) to relocate their spacecraft from the International Space Station's Poisk module to the Zvezda service module.

The three crew members undocked the Soyuz TMA-16M from Poisk at 2:12 a.m. CDT and re-docked at Zvezda 17 minutes later at 2:30 a.m. CDT (0712 to 0730 GMT).

The move of the Soyuz clears the Poisk module's docking port for the arrival of Soyuz TMA-18M, scheduled to dock on Sept. 4.

posted 09-11-2015 07:59 PM               

Soyuz TMA-16M lands from space station with Russian, Dane and Kazakh crew

A record-setting Russian cosmonaut, the first Dane in space and the first member of Kazakhstan's cosmonaut corps landed back on Earth Friday (Sept. 11), returning safely from the International Space Station.

Gennady Padalka, who has now spent more time in space than anyone in history, commanded the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft that touched down in Kazakhstan with Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov representing the European Space Agency (ESA) and KazCosmos, respectively.

Descending by parachute through the predawn sky, Soyuz TMA-16M made a thruster-assisted soft landing southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan at 8:51 p.m. EDT (0051 GMT; 6:51 a.m. local time Sept. 12).