ISS - Expedition 57 Mission patch.
Oct. 9, 2018
The next rocket that will launch NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’ Alexey Ovchinin to the International Space Station stands ready at its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The duo will liftoff atop the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft Thursday at 4:40 a.m. EDT for a six-hour ride to their new home in space.
Hague and Ovchinin have been in final preparations at the launch site for two weeks of fit checks, Soyuz tests, procedure reviews and other traditional activities. This will be Hague’s first flight and Ovchinin’s second to the orbital lab.
Image above: At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, launch pad gantry arms are seen closing around the Soyuz rocket in this long exposure photograph, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. Image Credit: NASA.
Three Expedition 57 crew members aboard the space station await their new crewmates. Commander Alexander Gerst and Flight Engineers Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Sergey Prokopyev will greet the new duo Thursday when they aim to dock at 10:44 a.m. and open the Soyuz hatch around 1:10 p.m.
Soyuz MS-10 ready for launch
Video above: A Soyuz-FG rocket will launch the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft with International Space Station Expedition 57-58 crew members, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on 11 October 2018, at 08:40 UTC (14:40 local time). Video Credits: Roscosmos/NASA/Bill Ingalls.
In the meantime, the orbiting trio today continued juggling a variety of science to improve life on Earth and maintenance to keep the station in tip-top shape. Gerst set up a microscope to observe the structure of protein molecules. Auñón-Chancellor brought in a small satellite deployer from outside the Kibo laboratory module after it deployed three CubeSats on Monday. Prokopyev worked on computers and life support gear throughout the station’s Russian segment.
Soyuz Rolls to the Pad for Next Launch to the Space Station
Image above: The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 57 crewmembers Nick Hague of NASA and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch on October 11 and will spend the six months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Related article:
NASA Television to Air Launch of NASA Astronaut on First Space Mission
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-television-to-air-launch-of-nasa-astronaut-on-first-space-mission
Related links:
Expedition 57: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition57/index.html
Structure of protein molecules: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7741
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Yvette Smith/Mark Garcia/NASA TV/SciNews.
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