NASA Sets Coverage for Crew Launch; Trio to Join Expedition 70

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center on Nov. 2, 2023

Credits: GCTC/Andrey Shelepin

Three crew members will blast off on Thursday, March 21, to support Expedition 70 aboard the International Space Station. NASA will provide full coverage of launch and crew arrival at the microgravity laboratory.

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, are scheduled to lift off on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:21 a.m. EDT (6:21 p.m. Baikonur time).

Launch coverage will begin at 8:20 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.

Dyson, Novitskiy, and Vasilevskaya will journey to the station on a two-orbit, three-hour trajectory that will result in a docking to the station’s Prichal module at 12:39 p.m.

Shortly after, hatches between the station and the Soyuz will open and the new crew members will connect with NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin, already living and working aboard the space station.

NASA coverage of the mission is as follows (all times Eastern and are subject to change based on real-time operations):

Thursday, March 21:

8:20 a.m. – Launch coverage begins
9:21 a.m. – Launch
11:30 a.m. – Rendezvous and docking coverage begins
12:39 p.m. – Docking
2:50 p.m. – Hatch opening and welcome remarks coverage begins

Dyson will spend six months aboard the station as an Expedition 70 and 71 flight engineer, returning to Earth in September with Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub of Roscosmos, who will complete a year-long mission on the laboratory.

Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will be aboard the station for 12 days, providing the ride home for O’Hara on Tuesday, April 2, aboard Soyuz MS-24 for a parachute-assisted landing on steppe of Kazakhstan. O’Hara will have spent 200 days in space when she returns.

This will be the third spaceflight for Dyson, the fourth for Novitskiy, and the first for Vasilevskaya.

Quelle: NASA

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Update: 23.03.2024

Launch aborted of Russian Soyuz spacecraft seconds before blast-off

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - The launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft was aborted just seconds before scheduled lift-off to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday and the crew of a Russian, a Belarusian and an American were safety evacuated.

"Launch!" mission control said in Russian as the rocket was shown at its launch site at the Baikonur cosmodrome in the steppe of Kazakhstan with its a main umbilical shown moving away.

Then the words "automatic cancellation of the launch" came over the live stream just 20 seconds before the scheduled launch.

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said there had been a slump in the current of a chemical power source about 20 seconds before lift-off. It was not immediately clear what exactly the current fluctuation affected.

Aborting the launch at such late notice is rare - with the rocket on the launch pad with its crew bracing for take-off.

Roscosmos said the launch would take place on March 23 at 1236 GMT, and space chief Yuri Borisov played down the drama.

"Colleagues, space is like this and the situation is quite understandable," he said.

NASA TV said the second umbilical support retracted but without the initiation of the engine.

Those presenting the live stream for Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said: "Unfortunately friends, a command has been sounded to cancel the launch."

The launch had been scheduled to take place at 1321 GMT and dock with the ISS a few hours later.

The crew, including NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, were shown in the rocket just before the cancellation.

Novitsky and Vasilevskaya had been due to stay just 12 days on the ISS and to give a ride home to American Loral O’Hara on April 2, according to NASA.

Dyson was due to spend six months aboard the ISS doing experiments on technology that would help humans prepare for future space missions, NASA said.

Quelle: Reuters

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NASA Astronaut Tracy Dyson, Crewmates Safely En Route to Space Station

The Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 71 NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, onboard, Saturday, March 23, 2024, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

NASA/Bill Ingalls

Three crew members including NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson successfully launched at 8:36 a.m. EDT Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station.

Dyson, along with her crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, will dock to the space station’s Prichal module about 11:09 a.m. on Monday, March 25, on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.

Docking coverage will begin at 10:15 a.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. NASA also will air coverage, starting at 1:15 p.m., of the crew welcome ceremony on NASA+ once they are aboard the orbital outpost. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.

When the hatches between the station and the Soyuz open about 1:40 p.m., the new crew members will join NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin, already living and working aboard the space station.

Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will be aboard the station for 12 days, before providing the ride home for O’Hara on Saturday, April 6, aboard Soyuz MS-24 for a parachute-assisted landing on steppe of Kazakhstan.

This will be the third spaceflight for Dyson, the fourth for Novitskiy, and the first for Vasilevskaya.

Quelle: NASA

Raumfahrt - Startvorbereitung von Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft mit ISS Crew Expedition 70 Raumfahrt - Start von Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft mit ISS Crew Expedition 70

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