ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-16M Mission patch.
March 27, 2015
Images above: The Soyuz TMA-16M rocket launches on time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.
The Soyuz TMA-16M launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station at 3:42 p.m. EDT (1:42 a.m. on March 28 Baikonur time). Scott Kelly of NASA, Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) now are safely in orbit.
One-Year Crew Launches to the ISS
NASA TV coverage continues at http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv.
Kelly, Kornienko and Padalka will dock with the station’s Poisk module at 9:36 p.m. NASA Television coverage of the docking will begin at 8:45 p.m. Welcoming them aboard will be the current station residents, Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency). NASA TV coverage of the hatch opening and welcome ceremony begins at 10:45 p.m.
Boarding the Soyuz Spacecraft on Launch Day
Image above: Expedition 43 Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), top, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, center, and Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos wave farewell as they board the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft ahead of their launch to the International Space Station, Friday, March 27, 2015 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti arrived at the space station in November aboard their Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft and will remain aboard until May 14.
For more information about the International Space Station and its crews, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA / NASA TV.
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