posted 03-19-2018 02:31 PM               

Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft, crew poised for launch

Soyuz MS-08 commander Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, along with flight engineers Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold of NASA, are set to launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday (March 21) at 12:44 p.m. CDT (1744 GMT or 11:44 p.m. local) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

They will dock the Soyuz to the space station's Poisk module at 2:41 p.m CDT (1941 GMT) Friday (March 23), after a 34-orbit rendezvous.

About two hours later, the hatches between the Soyuz and the space station will open and Artemyev, Feustel and Arnold will be greeted by Expedition 55 commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of JAXA, both flight engineers.

Artemyev, Feustel and Arnold will stay on the station through August.

On Monday (March 19), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft was rolled out to the pad by train and erected into position.

posted 03-21-2018 12:54 PM               

Soyuz MS-08 launches cosmonaut, NASA astronauts to space station

Two U.S. astronauts and a cosmonaut from Russia have left Earth for a five-month mission on the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos lifted off on board Russia's Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft on Wednesday (March 21). Their ride to orbit, a Soyuz FG rocket, launched from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:44 p.m. EDT (1744 GMT or 11:44 p.m. Kazakh local time).

posted 03-23-2018 02:46 PM               

Soyuz MS-08 arrives at space station

Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold arrived at the International Space Station Friday (March 23), with the autonomous docking of Soyuz MS-08 to the Poisk module at 2:40 p.m. CDT (1940 GMT).

Following standard pressurization checks, the hatches between the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft and the space station will be opened.

posted 10-04-2018 03:02 AM               

Soyuz MS-08 undocks from space station

Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold undocked their Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft from the Poisk module at the International Space Station at 2:57 a.m. CDT (0757 GMT) Thursday (Oct. 4), beginning their return to Earth.

Before departing the vicinity of the station, the Soyuz MS-08 crew performed a flyaround of the outpost so that Feustel, re-positioned in the orbital module, could take photographs in preparation for the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station in November.

A deorbit burn is scheduled for 5:51 a.m. CDT (1051 GMT), setting up a landing southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 6:45 a.m. CDT (1145 GMT).

posted 10-04-2018 06:45 AM               

Soyuz MS-08 returns station crew to Earth after 197 days in space

Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut kicked off World Space Week on Thursday (Oct. 4) by returning home from a six-month stay on the International Space Station.

Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, both of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, touched down aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, at 7:44 a.m. EDT (1144 GMT or 5:44 p.m. local Kazakh time). The landing coincided with the 61st anniversary of the launch of the world's first satellite, Sputnik, by the former Soviet Union and the start of the Space Age.