Three astronauts dock at ISS for 5-month mission
Two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut docked at the International Space Station (ISS) for a five month mission on Wednesday following a night-time launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Tuesday.
Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said that the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft “successfully docked” at the ISS at 0825 (IST) in a statement on its website.
The Soyuz rocket carrying Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos, NASA firsttime flyer Mark Vande Hei and his veteran colleague Joe Acaba launched as scheduled from Baikonur at 3:17 am (local time).
The trio will now join Paolo Nespoli of Italy, Sergey Riazanski of Russia and Randy Bresnik of the US aboard the orbital lab.
The launch marked the first time two US astronauts have blasted off together on a mission to the ISS from Russia’s Baikonur since June 2010.
The American space agency stopped its own manned launches to the ISS in 2011 but recently moved to increase its crew complement aboard the ISS as the Russians cut theirs in a cost-saving measure announced last year.
Acaba, 50, has spent nearly 138 days in space over two missions, while Vande Hei, 50, served with the US army in Iraq before training as an astronaut.
Misurkin, 39, who is beginning his second mission aboard the ISS, also has a military background.
Speaking at the prelaunch news conference on Monday, Acaba, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, said he would be taking some “musica Latina” on board to lift his crewmates’ spirits.
“I can guarantee my crewmates they will not fall asleep during that music and if you want to dance at about 3 am tuned into our Soyuz capsule I think you’ll enjoy it,” he told journalists.
External cameras on the ISS captured footage of hurricane Irma last week brewing over the Atlantic as it prepared to wreak deadly havoc.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston said earlier this month it suffered “significant” damage during Hurricane Harvey, although Mission Control remained operational.