posted 03-13-2019 10:04 AM               

Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, crew poised for launch

Soyuz MS-12 commander Aleksey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, together with flight engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA, are set to launch to the International Space Station on Thursday (March 14) at 3:14 p.m. EDT (1914 GMT; 12:14 a.m. on March 15 local) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

They will dock the Soyuz to the space station's Rassvet module at 9:07 p.m. EDT (0107 GMT March 15) the same day, after a four-orbit rendezvous.

About two hours later, the hatches between the Soyuz and the space station will open and Ovchinin, Hague and Koch will be greeted by Expedition 59 commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos and Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, both flight engineers.

Hague and Ovchinin are completing a journey that was cut short Oct. 11, when a booster separation problem with their Soyuz MS-10 rocket's first stage triggered a launch abort two minutes into the flight. They landed safely a few minutes later, after reaching the fringes of space, and were reassigned to fly again. This will be Ovchinin's third flight into space, the second for Hague and the first for Koch.

On Tuesday (March 12), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft was rolled out to the pad by train and erected into position.

posted 03-14-2019 02:23 PM               

Crew of Soyuz launch abort lifts off to space station on second try

Nick Hague's second launch to space went much better than his first.

The NASA astronaut joined his Soyuz MS-10 crewmate, cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, for a second attempt at reaching the International Space Station, five months after an in-flight abort cut their first launch together short.

This time, Hague, Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Christina Koch safely made it into Earth orbit on Russia's Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. The three lifted off atop a Soyuz FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:14 p.m. EDT (2014 GMT or 12:14 a.m. on March 15 Kazakh time) to begin a six-hour rendezvous with the space station.

posted 03-14-2019 08:23 PM               

Soyuz MS-12 arrives at space station

Cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin and astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch arrived at the International Space Station Thursday (March 14), with the autonomous docking of Soyuz MS-12 to the Rassvet module at 9:01 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT).

Following standard pressurization checks, the hatches between the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft and the space station were opened.

posted 10-03-2019 02:38 AM               

Soyuz MS-12 undocks from space station

Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and spaceflight participant Hazzaa AlMansoori of the United Arab Emirates' Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre departed the International Space Station to return to Earth on Thursday (Oct. 3), undocking their Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft from the Rassvet module at 3:37 a.m. EDT (0737 GMT).

A deorbit burn at 6:06 a.m. EDT (1006 GMT) will set up a landing near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 6:58 a.m. EDT (1058 GMT or 4:58 p.m. local time).

posted 10-03-2019 06:00 AM               

First Emirati astronaut lands with Russian and US crewmates from space station

The first Emirati astronaut has returned to Earth after an eight day mission to the International Space Station, landing with Russian and American crewmates were were in orbit for seven months.

Hazzaa AlMansoori of the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) touched down with Aleksey Ovchinin of Roscosmos and Nick Hague of NASA aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. Descending under a parachute and slowed by braking thrusters, the capsule landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan, near the town of Dzhezkazgan, at 6:59 a.m. EDT (1059 GMT or 4:59 p.m. local time) on Thursday (Oct. 3).