Soyuz capsule blasts off for International Space Station

Then at 12:12AM ET Saturday, July 9th, the Soyuz will dock with the ISS, and its hatch will open at 2:50AM ET.

The astronauts blasted off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in an upgraded Soyuz spacecraft.

The NASA astronaut is a molecular biologist who joined the space program in 2009.

After almost three hours of docking, they will be greeted by Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA, as well as Russian cosmonauts Oled Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin.

He later met with his family again, shortly before the launch. The Expedition 48 crew members will continue experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science, and Earth science.

A few moments after the liftoff, cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin reported that everything is under control inside the rocket.

Because this is a shakedown cruise for the Soyuz MS, Rubins, Onishi and Ivanishin will opt out of the six-and-a-half hour express trajectory to get to the station.

Afterward, the rocket’s third stage took control over the mission, leading the spacecraft to a planned separation at almost nine minutes into the flight.

Before arriving at the ISS, the three spacefliers will test the upgraded Soyuz spacecraft. They also checked the kits with scientific equipment and trained the upcoming ballistic operations and other preparatory procedures. It was brought to the processing facility and mounted onto a jig for handling. This mission was originally scheduled to launch last month, but an issue with the docking software forced a delay.

The spacefarers won’t be asleep for those two days, either.

First-time astronauts Kathleen Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japanese space agency set off for a four-month mission at the ISS with two-time Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin at 0706 IST. Even the spacecraft was modified, as the launch involves a new Soyuz MS spacecraft.

On top of that, the new Soyuz MS-01 has more efficient solar panels, which will significantly increase its energy output.

But Rubins’ spacecraft has learned a few new tricks.

“There’s often a distinction between operations and research that’s made on the ground”. But for the first flight of the upgraded MS-series spacecraft, Ivanishin and his crewmates will follow a more traditional 34-hour rendezvous to give Russian engineers time to thoroughly check out the vehicle’s upgraded systems. “At T+4’50” first core stage was separated during slight with speed at 14000 km/h on altitude of 159 km.

These four liquid-fueled strap-on boosters provide extra lift during the initial phase of the flight.

Additionally, Expedition 48 is expected to receive the sixth commercial resupply mission of SpaceX’s rival, American aerospace manufacturer Orbital ATK, as well as two Russian Progress resupply flights. Numerous tests are meant to prepare the way for a mission to Mars, a journey of several months with physical demands far beyond any manned flights to date. Nowakowski reached out to SpaceFlight Insider in an effort to have the two space-related websites collaborate.