posted 07-04-2016 08:49 AM               

First Soyuz MS spacecraft, crew poised for launch

Soyuz MS-01 commander Anatoli Ivanishin of Roscosmos, along with flight engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are set to launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday (July 6) at 8:36 p.m. CDT (0136 GMT or 7:36 a.m. local time July 7) from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA/Alexander Vysotsky

The trio will travel in an upgraded Soyuz spacecraft, testing modified systems for two days — and 34 Earth orbits — before docking to the space station's Rassvet module on Friday (July 8) at 11:12 p.m. CDT (0412 GMT July 9).

About two hours later, the hatches between Soyuz MS-01 and the station will open and Ivanishin, Rubins and Onishi will be greeted by ISS Expedition 48 commander Jeff Williams and flight engineers Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin.

Ivanishin, Rubins and Onishi will stay on the space station through October.

On Monday (July 4), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the MS-01 spacecraft was rolled out to the launch pad by train and erected into position.

posted 07-06-2016 08:48 PM               

First flight of upgraded Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft lifts off for space station

An upgraded Russian spacecraft lifted off on its maiden mission on Wednesday (July 6), launching a veteran Russian cosmonaut, a Japanese astronaut and an American microbiologist on a two-day journey to the space station.

Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos, Takuya Onishi with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NASA's Kate Rubins took flight on Russia's Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft at 9:36 p.m. EDT (0136 GMT), or 7:36 a.m. Thursday (July 7) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan.

The three crewmates are scheduled to arrive at the space station just after midnight (EDT) on Saturday morning (July 9), after testing their spacecraft's modified systems during a 34-orbit rendezvous with the outpost.

posted 07-08-2016 11:07 PM               

Soyuz MS-01 docks to space station

Russia's Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module at the International Space Station on Friday (July 8) at 11:06 p.m. CDT (0406 GMT July 9) as the two vehicles were orbiting 254 miles (409 km) over the South Pacific.

posted 10-29-2016 07:38 PM               

Soyuz MS-01 undocks from space station

After 113 days on board the International Space Station, cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin of Roscosmos, astronaut Kate Rubins of NASA and astronaut Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency undocked their Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft from the Rassvet module on Saturday (Oct. 29) at 7:35 p.m. CDT (0035 GMT Oct. 30), beginning their return to Earth.

The Soyuz will perform a 4-minute, 37-second deorbit burn at 10:06 p.m. CDT (0306 GMT). The crew is scheduled to touch down at 10:59 p.m. CDT (0359 GMT) southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

posted 10-29-2016 11:56 PM               

Soyuz MS-01 lands with Russian, US and Japanese crew from space station

The first astronaut to sequence DNA in space is now back on Earth, together with her two space station crewmates.

Astronaut Kate Rubins, a molecular biologist who became the 60th woman to fly into space, returned home from the International Space Station Saturday (Oct. 29) with Anatoli Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Takuya Onishi with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

The three crewmates landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 11:58 p.m. EDT (0358 GMT or 9:58 a.m. Oct. 30 Kazakh time) on the first of Russia's modernized spacecraft, Soyuz MS-01. Their parachute and retro thruster assisted landing concluded 115 days in orbit for the trio since their launch to the space station on July 6.

See here to discuss the Soyuz MS-01 mission to the space station.