ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-08M Mission patch.
March 28, 2013
Soyuz Completes Expedited Journey to Station
Images above: View of video monitor and display instruments and computers aboard Soyuz TMA-08M (ISS 600 meters distance). Photo credit: NASA TV / Screen capture: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.
The Soyuz TMA-08M vehicle docked to the International Space Station at 10:28 p.m. EDT over the Pacific Ocean just west of Peru. Aboard the space station, Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency and Flight Engineers Tom Marshburn of NASA and Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency will welcome Soyuz crew members Chris Cassidy, Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin when the hatches between the two spacecraft are opened.
Fast-Tracked Soyuz Docks to Station
The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft carrying three new Expedition 35 crew members docked with the International Space Station’s Poisk module at 10:32 p.m. EDT Thursday, completing an accelerated journey to the orbiting complex in less than six hours.
Image above: The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft approaches the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA TV / Screen capture: Orbiter.ch Aerospace.
Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, who launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m. EDT Thursday (2:43 a.m. Friday, Baikonur time) are the first station crew members to take this expedited route to the orbiting laboratory. The Soyuz reached the station after only four orbits instead of the usual two-day launch-to-docking mission profile for a Russian spacecraft. While this is the first crewed spacecraft to employ this technique, Russian space officials successfully tested it with the last three Progress cargo flights.
Soyuz TMA-08M Crew. Photo credit: ROSCOSMOS
After the hatches open at 12:10 a.m. Friday, Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will join Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency and Flight Engineers Tom Marshburn of NASA and Roman Romanenko of Roscosmos who have been residing at the orbital laboratory since Dec. 21, 2012. All six crew members crew will then participate in a welcome ceremony with family members and mission officials gathered at the Russian Mission Control Center in Star City near Moscow.
Soyuz TMA-08M docked at ISS. Photo credit: NASA TV
NASA TV coverage of the hatch opening and welcome ceremony begins at 11:30 p.m. Watch NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Image above: Soyuz TMA-M - A new series of the legendary Soyuz spacecrafts (description). Image credit: Rianovosti.
Expedition 35 will operate with its full six-person crew complement until May when Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko return to Earth aboard their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft. Their departure will mark the beginning of Expedition 36 under the command of Vinogradov, who along with crewmates Cassidy and Misurkin will maintain the station as a three-person crew until the launch of three additional flight engineers in late May. Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin are scheduled to return to Earth in September.
Read more about Expedition 35: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition35/index.html
For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS / ROSOSMOS TV / NASA / NASA TV / Orbiter.ch Aerospace / Rianovosti.
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