{"id":16451,"date":"2015-03-25T23:41:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/soyuz-primed-to-launch-veteran-space-station-crew\/"},"modified":"2015-03-25T23:41:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:41:59","slug":"soyuz-primed-to-launch-veteran-space-station-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/soyuz-primed-to-launch-veteran-space-station-crew\/","title":{"rendered":"Soyuz primed to launch veteran space station crew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O5UJZx8s9i4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A Soyuz rocket is sitting on a historic launch pad in Kazakhstan after a railroad journey at sunrise Wednesday positioned the crew ferry craft for liftoff Friday with a three-man crew destined for the International Space Station, including two spaceflight veterans who will spend nearly one year in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Riding a specially-made rail car, the kerosene-fueled rocket booster departed its hangar at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan before sunrise Wednesday. The morning rollouts are a tradition dating back to the launch of Yuri Gagarin in 1961, who became the first human to travel in space.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz rocket arrived at the launch pad \u2014 the same facility used for Gagarin\u2019s mission nearly 54 years ago \u2014 a few hours later. A hydraulic erector lifted the rocket vertical over the pad\u2019s flame trench, then workers lifted huge service platforms around the launcher for final pre-flight preparations.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket will send the Soyuz TMA-16M capsule on a six-hour voyage to the International Space Station, delivering Soyuz commander Gennady Padalka, cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly to the outpost. Padalka is beginning a nearly six-month stay on the space station, and Kelly and Kornienko are slated to live in space for 342 days before returning to Earth in March 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists will track their response to extended exposure to microgravity to help plan future missions to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Padalka\u2019s mission will put the veteran Russian cosmonaut at the top of the record books for the must cumulative time in space, surpassing fellow cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who has logged 803 days in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Liftoff is set for Friday at 1942 GMT (3:42 p.m. EDT), with docking to the space station\u2019s Poisk module scheduled for 0136 GMT (9:36 p.m. EDT).<\/p>\n<p>The trio will join space station commander Terry Virts, flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti and cosmonaut Anton Schkaplerov to expand the Expedition 43 crew to six members.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5086\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5086\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5086\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16923878331_ba32a3c8b5_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16923878331_ba32a3c8b5_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16923878331_ba32a3c8b5_z-300x239.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5099\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5099\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5099\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16307412623_79157a0fdd_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16307412623_79157a0fdd_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16307412623_79157a0fdd_z-300x188.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5099\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5095\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5095\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5095\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305071274_5103278f5b_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305071274_5103278f5b_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305071274_5103278f5b_z-300x205.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5087\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5087 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16923933921_e85dbb9aae_z.jpg\" alt=\"16923933921_e85dbb9aae_z\" width=\"640\" height=\"418\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16923933921_e85dbb9aae_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16923933921_e85dbb9aae_z-300x196.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5091\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5091\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5091\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16304508323_fcab5411d9_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16304508323_fcab5411d9_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16304508323_fcab5411d9_z-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5091\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5093\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5093\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5093 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16304976993_67d8c00e38_z.jpg\" alt=\"16304976993_67d8c00e38_z\" width=\"640\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16304976993_67d8c00e38_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16304976993_67d8c00e38_z-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5093\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5088\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5088\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5088\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16926192002_86316fb338_k-740x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"620\" height=\"858\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16926192002_86316fb338_k-740x1024.jpg 740w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16926192002_86316fb338_k-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16926192002_86316fb338_k-768x1063.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16926192002_86316fb338_k.jpg 1480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5088\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5090\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5090\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5090\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16927482055_0e27cd6140_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16927482055_0e27cd6140_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16927482055_0e27cd6140_z-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5090\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5097\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5097\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5097\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305166064_57b92cf985_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305166064_57b92cf985_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305166064_57b92cf985_z-300x177.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5097\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5081\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5081\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5081 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16720186337_de842de1c7_z.jpg\" alt=\"16720186337_de842de1c7_z\" width=\"640\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16720186337_de842de1c7_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16720186337_de842de1c7_z-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5081\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5084\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5084\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5084\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16739761358_c98d17edeb_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"471\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16739761358_c98d17edeb_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16739761358_c98d17edeb_z-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16739761358_c98d17edeb_z-80x60.jpg 80w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5084\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5082\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5082\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5082\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16720225867_873b5c0ac6_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16720225867_873b5c0ac6_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16720225867_873b5c0ac6_z-300x185.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5082\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5094\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5094\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5094\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305066323_da01a50e9f_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305066323_da01a50e9f_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305066323_da01a50e9f_z-300x182.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5094\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5083\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5083\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5083\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16737688250_88e6bec20d_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16737688250_88e6bec20d_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16737688250_88e6bec20d_z-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5083\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5085\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5085\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5085 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16740206618_d2b7e22515_z.jpg\" alt=\"16740206618_d2b7e22515_z\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16740206618_d2b7e22515_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16740206618_d2b7e22515_z-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5085\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5100\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5100\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5100\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16307822653_9159c3cbae_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16307822653_9159c3cbae_z.jpg 640w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16307822653_9159c3cbae_z-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5100\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5096\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5096\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5096 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305139914_d944e90197_k-707x1024.jpg\" alt=\"16305139914_d944e90197_k\" width=\"620\" height=\"898\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305139914_d944e90197_k-707x1024.jpg 707w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305139914_d944e90197_k-207x300.jpg 207w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305139914_d944e90197_k-768x1112.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305139914_d944e90197_k.jpg 1414w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5098\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5098\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305513694_7875331fa8_k-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls\" width=\"620\" height=\"930\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305513694_7875331fa8_k-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305513694_7875331fa8_k-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305513694_7875331fa8_k-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/16305513694_7875331fa8_k.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b><i>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Soyuz rocket is sitting on a historic launch pad in Kazakhstan after a railroad journey at sunrise Wednesday positioned the crew ferry craft for liftoff Friday with a three-man crew destined for the International Space Station, including two spaceflight veterans who will spend nearly one year in orbit. Riding a specially-made rail car, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1601,3790,3960,717,3794,3726,1302,3961],"class_list":["post-16451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-expedition-43","tag-gennady-padalka","tag-international-space-station","tag-mikhail-kornienko","tag-scott-kelly","tag-soyuz","tag-soyuz-tma-16m"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}