Engineers readied a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for launch Friday to hold a veteran cosmonaut commander, a rookie co-pilot and a NASA astronaut on a flight to the Worldwide House Station.
NASA’s Loral O’Hara, making her first house flight, veteran commander Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub are scheduled for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:44 a.m. EDT (8:44 p.m. native time) Friday.
The launching was timed to arrange a fast-track three-hour, 11-minute rendezvous with the house station and if all goes effectively, the Soyuz MS-24/70S ferry ship will dock on the Earth-facing port of the Russian Rassvet module at 2:56 p.m.
Kononenko, Chub and O’Hara are changing one other Soyuz crew — commander Sergey Prokopyev, co-pilot Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio — who have been launched to the station final September. They plan to return to Earth on Sept. 27 to wrap up an prolonged 371-day mission, the longest single house flight but by an American astronaut.
The trio initially anticipated to return residence in March, however their flight was stretched out an extra six months after their Soyuz MS-22/68S spacecraft was disabled by a coolant leak final December. They will now come again to Earth aboard a substitute Soyuz launched final February.
Because it seems, Kononenko and Chub plan to spend a full 12 months aboard the station as effectively whereas O’Hara’s tour of responsibility will final six months.
To get everybody up and down as required, the Russians plan to launch a so-called “taxi” flight subsequent March when veteran commander Oleg Novitskiy, NASA’s Tracy Dyson and Belarus researcher Marina Vasilevskaya ship a recent ferry ship to the station.
Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya and O’Hara then will return to Earth about 10 days later aboard the identical Soyuz that carries O’Hara aloft on Friday. Kononenko, Chub and Dyson will stay in orbit till subsequent September, coming residence aboard the Soyuz MS-25/71S Soyuz that might be delivered by Novitskiy.
Migrant heart housing unaccompanied minors reopens in Texas
Lawmakers weigh in on Hunter Biden indictment
Lahaina couple have child weeks after fleeing Maui wildfires
