posted 09-01-2015 12:22 PM               

Soyuz TMA-18M poised for launch

Soyuz TMA-18M commander Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, KazCosmos are set to launch to the International Space Station Tuesday (Sept. 1) at 11:37 p.m. CDT (0437 GMT; 10:37 a.m. local time Sept. 2), from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

They will dock their Soyuz to the station's Russian Poisk module at 2:42 a.m. CDT (0742 GMT) on Friday (Sept. 4), following a two-day rendezvous.

The hatches between Soyuz TMA-18M and the station will then be opened, at which time the newly arrived crewmembers will be greeted by Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos, as well as flight engineers Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

This will be the first time nine crewmembers are aboard the station since November 2013. Padalka, Mogensen and Aimbetov will return to Earth on Soyuz TMA-16M on Saturday, Sept. 12, leaving Kelly in command of Expedition 45. The change of command ceremony in which Padalka will hand over command of the space station to Kelly will be on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 1:40 p.m. CDT.

Volkov will join the Expedition 45 crew as a flight engineer, returning to Earth with Kelly and Kornienko on Soyuz TMA-18M after their year-long mission is complete in March 2016.

On Monday (Aug. 31), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft was rolled out to the launch pad by train and erected into position.

posted 09-01-2015 11:48 PM               

Soyuz TMA-18M launches Russian, Dane and Kazakh to space station

The first second-generation Russian cosmonaut, the first astronaut from Denmark and the first (and at present, only) member of Kazakhstan's cosmonaut corps launched Wednesday (Sept. 2) on a two-day flight to the International Space Station to swap out crew members and spacecraft.

Sergei Volkov, whose father, Alexander, was a Soviet-era cosmonaut, Andreas Mogensen with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, KazCosmos, lifted off at 12:37 a.m. EDT (0437 GMT; 10:37 a.m. local time) on board Russia's Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft from Site 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Their launch, at least by some counts, marked the 500th liftoff of a rocket from Gagarin's Start, the launch pad from where the first human spaceflight began in 1961.

posted 09-04-2015 02:39 AM               

Soyuz TMA-18M docks to space station

Sergei Volkov, Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov docked their Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft to the Poisk module at the International Space Station on Friday (Sept. 4) at 2:39 a.m. CDT (0739 GMT) as the two vehicles were orbiting 252 miles above the Earth, over the nortern border of Kazakhstan and Russia.

posted 03-01-2016 04:13 PM               

Before climbing aboard the Soyuz spacecraft that would take them back to Earth on March 1, Expedition 46 commander Scott Kelly of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos said farewell to the crew staying aboard the International Space Station.

Kelly, Kornienko and Volkov then boarded the Soyuz and prepared for the trip home.

posted 03-01-2016 07:44 PM               

After saying farewell to the crew staying behind aboard the International Space Station and climbing aboard the Soyuz spacecraft that would take them back to Earth on March 1, Expedition 46 commander Scott Kelly of NASA and cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos undocked their Soyuz from the station at 7:02 p.m. EST (0002 GMT) and prepared for the trip home.

posted 03-01-2016 11:36 PM               

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko land on Earth after yearlong space mission

An astronaut and a cosmonaut who spent nearly one year on the International Space Station are now back on Earth.

Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos touched down on the snow-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on Russia's Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft. Their landing, at 10:26 p.m. CST on Tuesday (March 1; 0426 GMT or 10:26 a.m. local time March 2), marked the historic completion of their 340-day expedition.

Sergey Volkov, who had been on the space station for the six months since Sept. 2, landed with Kelly and Kornienko southeast of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan.

See here to discuss the Soyuz TMA-18M mission to the space station.