posted 07-18-2019 06:29 AM               

Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft, crew poised for launch

Soyuz MS-13 commander Aleksandr Skvortsov of Roscosmos, together with flight engineers Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Drew Morgan of NASA, are set to launch to the International Space Station on Saturday (July 20) at 12:28 p.m. EDT (1628 GMT; 9:28 p.m. local) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: Andrey Shelepin/GCTC

They will dock the Soyuz to the space station's Zvezda service module at 6:50 p.m. EDT (2250 GMT) the same day, after a four-orbit rendezvous.

About two hours later, the hatches between the Soyuz and the space station will open and Skvortsov, Parmitano and Morgan will be greeted by Expedition 60 commander Aleksey Ovchinin of Roscosmos and Nick Hague and Christina Koch, both NASA flight engineers.

The launch coincides with the the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission’s historic landing on the moon in 1969.

On Thursday (July 18), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft was rolled out to the pad by train and erected into position.

Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

posted 07-20-2019 11:40 AM               

Soyuz MS-13 crew lifts off to space station on first moon landing 50th

Drew Morgan will likely never forget where he was on July 20th — not because it was the day that humans first landed on the moon, but because it was his first launch into space.

The 43-year-old NASA astronaut lifted off with cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov, 53, of Russia's space agency Roscosmos and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano, 42, on Saturday (July 20), 50 years to the day after Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down at Tranquility Base.

posted 07-20-2019 07:22 PM               

Soyuz MS-13 docks at space station

Cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov of Roscosmos with astronauts Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Drew Morgan of NASA arrived at the International Space Station Saturday (July 20), with the autonomous docking of Soyuz MS-13 to the Zvezda service module at 6:48 p.m. EDT (2248 GMT).

Following standard pressurization checks, the hatches between the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft and the space station were opened.

posted 08-25-2019 11:00 PM               

Crew relocates Soyuz MS-13 to Poisk module

Expedition 60 crew members Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Drew Morgan of NASA relocated their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft from the Zvezda service module where they docked on July 20 to the Poisk Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM 2) on Sunday (Aug. 25).

The spacecraft separated from Zvezda at 11:35 p.m. EDT (0335 GMT) and docked to Poisk under manual control at 11:59 p.m. (0359 GMT).

The relocation was performed to allow the uncrewed Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to attempt a docking with Zvezda on Monday (Aug. 26), after it failed to dock with the Poisk module on Saturday. The initial attempt was aborted after what Russian flight controllers said was a suspected problem with a component associated with the Kurs automated rendezvous system for the Poisk module docking port.

The suspect amplifier unit was not a factor for the manual relocation by Skvortsov and his Soyuz MS-13 crewmates.

posted 02-05-2020 11:52 PM               

Soyuz MS-13 undocks from space station

Cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA astronaut Christina Koch departed the International Space Station to return to Earth on Thursday (Feb. 6), undocking their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft from the Poisk mini-research module at 12:50 a.m. EST (0550 GMT).

A deorbit burn at 3:18 a.m. EST (0818 GMT) will set up a landing near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 4:12 a.m. EST (0912 GMT or 3:12 p.m. local time).

posted 02-06-2020 03:13 AM               

Astronaut Christina Koch lands on Earth after record-setting space station mission

Christina Koch did not set out to break records on her first spaceflight, but with her return to Earth after nearly a year in orbit, her mission is now one for the history books.

Koch, a NASA astronaut, landed on the snow-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on Thursday (Feb. 6) with two of her International Space Station (ISS) crewmates, Expedition 61 commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) and cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Descending under a parachute and further slowed by braking thrusters, the three touched down aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft southeast of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan at 4:12 a.m. EST (0912 GMT or 3:12 p.m. local time).