{"id":16811,"date":"2014-11-23T18:55:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T10:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/three-person-crew-docks-with-space-station\/"},"modified":"2014-11-23T18:55:55","modified_gmt":"2014-11-23T10:55:55","slug":"three-person-crew-docks-with-space-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/three-person-crew-docks-with-space-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-person crew docks with space station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>STORY WRITTEN FOR&nbsp;CBS NEWS \u201cSPACE PLACE\u201d&nbsp;&amp; USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n<p>Updated after docking<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/doee9k-x6MY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Five hours and 48 minutes after a sky-lighting launch from Kazakhstan, a Russian Soyuz ferry craft carrying a crew of three representing Russia, the United States and Italy, glided to a smooth docking at the International Space Station late Sunday, boosting the lab\u2019s crew back to six and setting the stage for a busy winter of research and spacewalk assembly work.<\/p>\n<p>As the two spacecraft sailed 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean approaching the coast of South America, Soyuz TMA-15M commander Anton Shkaplerov, flanked on the left by European Space Agency flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti and on the right by NASA astronaut Terry Virts, monitored an autonomous approach to the Earth-facing Rassvet module, moving in for docking at 9:49 p.m. EST (GMT-5).<\/p>\n<p>After extensive leak checks to verify a tight seal, space station commander Barry \u201cButch\u201d Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova planned to welcome their new crewmates aboard for a traditional videoconference with mission managers, friends and family standing by at the launch site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe congratulate all of you,\u201d a Russian flight controller radioed shortly after docking. \u201cGood luck to you and all the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you,\u201d Shkaplerov replied.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"509\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ozIGF5j8aNg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Launching almost directly into the plane of the station\u2019s orbit, the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft lifted off from complex 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01 p.m. \u2014 3:01 a.m. Monday local time.<\/p>\n<p>Trailing a brilliant plume of fiery exhaust, the Soyuz booster quickly climbed away from launch complex 31, knifing through low clouds and disappearing from view as the crackling roar of its first- and second-stage engines thundered across the sprawling space center.<\/p>\n<p>Live television from inside the TMA-15M command module showed Shkaplerov, strapped into the center seat, calmly monitoring cockpit displays and providing status reports to flight controllers. All three crew members appeared relaxed in the cramped cockpit, tightly strapped into their custom-contour seats as the booster accelerated toward orbit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything\u2019s fine on board, everything\u2019s nominal,\u201d Shkaplerov radioed.<\/p>\n<p>The space station passed over Baikonur a few moments before liftoff and Wilmore reported he was able to see the Soyuz as it climbed out of the clouds more than 500 miles behind and below the lab complex.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket\u2019s four oxygen-kerosene powered strap on-boosters shut down and fell away about two minutes after liftoff, followed three minutes later by shutdown of the second stage core booster. The third stage engine then ignited, the second stage fell away and the Soyuz continued the climb to orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Eight minutes and 45 seconds after liftoff, the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft separated from the upper stage, its two solar panels and navigation antennas unfolded and the crew began working through a carefully choreographed series of rocket firings to catch up with the space station.<\/p>\n<p>With the arrival of the TMA-15M crew, the focus of station operations will shift back to a full slate of research activity and preparations for a series of spacewalks next year to prepare the lab for dockings by new commercial crew ferry craft now under development in the United States.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q399t8ioXaY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mission we\u2019ll be doing on the space station is going to be very busy,\u201d Virts said before launch. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be primarily focused on maintaining the station safely, keeping it running and leaving it a better place than when we (arrived).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut of course, the mission of the space station is science, and we have a very aggressive science program, roughly 170 U.S.-based experiments, NASA and U.S. companies and private educational institutions, and over 70 other international experiments. So there\u2019s a lot of science we\u2019ll be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Virts and Wilmore plan to carry out three spacewalks in late January and early February to help prepare the station for the installation later in the year of two docking adapters that will allow the new commercial spacecraft to link up with the lab complex.<\/p>\n<p>During two spacewalks, or EVAs, Virts and Wilmore plan to install cables to route power and data to the docking ports. During the third excursion, they plan to install communications gear needed by approaching crew ships and carry out maintenance on the station\u2019s robot arm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe main task for the first spacewalks that are scheduled will be to get the station ready to receive capsules,\u201d Virts said. \u201cOur task on Expedition 42 \u2026 will be to lay the wiring down, the cables on the outside of the station that will allow the docking ring to work for the capsules. Getting the docking system going is a big part of our spacewalks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for the robot arm and its critical internal grapple system, \u201cit\u2019s getting a little sticky\u201d after a decade in orbit, Virts said, \u201cso we\u2019re going to have to go out and put some grease on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Along with research and spacewalk preparations, Virts said he was especially looking forward to spending time in the multi-window cupola compartment his shuttle crew helped install in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLooking at Earth is the most powerful drug you can imagine,\u201d Virts said. \u201cYou just can\u2019t get enough of it, and that\u2019s kind of all you want to do. Not only Earth, but also looking out into space. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be spending my time looking at everything. And there are so many amazing things to see, thunderstorms in the Amazon and central Africa, you just can\u2019t get enough of that, especially at dawn, because then you can see both the clouds and the lightning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shkaplerov agreed, saying \u201ceveryone knows being an astronaut is a dangerous profession, but it is definitely very interesting, it is so worth it. Everything becomes worth it once you\u2019re able to see the Earth from the window of the space station.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ud0utsoA9I0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Serova is the first female cosmonaut assigned to a long-duration flight aboard the station. A half dozen female NASA astronauts have lived aboard the complex during the 14 years it has been staffed by rotating crews, but Cristoforetti is the first woman assigned to a long-duration flight by the European Space Agency.<\/p>\n<p>A veteran fighter pilot and a captain in the Italian air force, Cristoforetti holds a master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering, has expertise in aerospace propulsion technology and more than 500 hours flying time in a variety of military aircraft. But going into space is \u201cthe fulfillment of a dream I\u2019ve had since I was a child,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think what\u2019s most fascinating is the experience as a whole,\u201d she said. \u201cThis whole experience of, in just a few years, turning from somebody who was very passionate about space and tried to read about space and had a lot of knowledge as an enthusiast, and then turning that person into somebody who\u2019s actually ready to fly to space, to live and work in space \u2026 hopefully I\u2019ll be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the significance of being the first Italian woman to fly in space, Cristoforetti said it was just the luck of the draw and that she did not attach any special significance to her selection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have done nothing special to be the first Italian woman to fly into space, I just wanted to fly to space and I just happened to be the first,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I had done everything the same, if I had worked as hard, and if I had had the chance of becoming an astronaut, and if I had been the second, to me it would have been the same.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI understand this may well have significance for people who see this, and it can be an inspiration for &nbsp;women in Italy and Europe. And obviously, I\u2019m very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STORY WRITTEN FOR&nbsp;CBS NEWS \u201cSPACE PLACE\u201d&nbsp;&amp; USED WITH PERMISSION Updated after docking Five hours and 48 minutes after a sky-lighting launch from Kazakhstan, a Russian Soyuz ferry craft carrying a crew of three representing Russia, the United States and Italy, glided to a smooth docking at the International Space Station late Sunday, boosting the lab\u2019s [&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":[4236,1601,4123,4025,4026,4027],"class_list":["post-16811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-anton-schkaplerov","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-expedition-42","tag-samantha-cristoforetti","tag-soyuz-tma-15m","tag-terry-virts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16811"}],"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=16811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}