{"id":17933,"date":"2019-09-25T21:32:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T13:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/trios-arrival-boosts-space-stations-population-to-nine-including-first-emirati\/"},"modified":"2019-09-25T21:32:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T13:32:15","slug":"trios-arrival-boosts-space-stations-population-to-nine-including-first-emirati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/trios-arrival-boosts-space-stations-population-to-nine-including-first-emirati\/","title":{"rendered":"Trio\u2019s arrival boosts space station\u2019s population to nine, including first Emirati"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_523362\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-523362\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-523362\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-soyuz-630x343.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-soyuz-630x343.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-soyuz-768x419.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-soyuz.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-523362\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Russian Soyuz rocket lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sending three spacefliers to the International Space Station. (NASA Photo \/ Bill Ingalls)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Three more spacefliers arrived at the International Space Station today in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, increasing the orbital outpost\u2019s population from its usual six to a crowded nine.<\/p>\n<p>One of the new arrivals is Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, the first citizen of the United Arab Emirates to fly in space.<\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old fighter jet pilot was sent to the final frontier under the terms of a contract with the Russian Space Agency, and will be returning to Earth on a different Soyuz in just eight days. The cost to the UAE hasn\u2019t been reported, but for what it\u2019s worth, NASA has been paying the Russians more than $80 million for a ride.<\/p>\n<p>The other two spacefliers are NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, another first-time flier, and veteran Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka.<\/p>\n<p>Their Soyuz craft docked with the station just six hours after today\u2019s launch from Russia\u2019s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n<p>The trio joined current crew members Christina Koch, Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan of NASA; Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency; and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Alexander Skvortsov.<\/p>\n<p>Hugs and handshakes were exchanged as the new crew members floated through the hatch from the Soyuz to the space station.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1176984785782075392&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2019%2Ftrios-arrival-boosts-space-stations-population-nine-including-first-emirati%2F&amp;sessionId=dd67d717caf931fd1132dd3abc3150c8a57f91f5&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1176984785782075392\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782800064778420647=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After a four-orbit, six-hour journey to the @Space_Station, three Earthlings opened the hatch to their new home at 6:12pm ET. Watch the crew being welcomed aboard our orbiting laboratory and ask questions using #AskNASA: https:\/\/t.co\/YqjHuhFtPX pic.twitter.com\/VBm3g8LRlL<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NASA (@NASA) September 25, 2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unusual but not unprecedented to have so many people on the space station at once. The last time there were nine on the crew was in 2015, in connection with astronaut Scott Kelly\u2019s \u201cYear in Space\u201d mission. The record high is 13 spacefliers, achieved several times during space shuttle dockings in the 2009-2011 time frame.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019ll be some complicated choreography ahead for comings and goings in orbit: Almansoori will be leaving the station with Hague and Ovchinin on Oct. 3. Skvortsov, Parmitano and Koch will head back next February. The homecoming for Skripochka, Meir and Morgan will take place in April.<\/p>\n<p>The scheduling means Koch will spend 328 days in orbit, setting a women\u2019s record for consecutive time in space. Morgan will also have an extended stay in space, stretching beyond 250 days. The usual tour of duty lasts four to six months.<\/p>\n<p>The first big task for the new space station expedition, known as Expedition 61, is to bring a robotic Japanese cargo craft in for its hookup on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Later in the expedition, spacewalkers will install new lithium-ion batteries for two of the station\u2019s solar array power channels, and perform repairs and upgrades on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a particle detector that\u2019s designed to look for antimatter and signs of dark matter.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_523375\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-523375\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-523375\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-crew1-630x405.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-crew1-630x405.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-crew1-768x494.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/190925-crew1.jpg 794w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-523375\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nine crew members face the camera on the space station during a video conference. (NASA via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Russian Soyuz rocket lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, sending three spacefliers to the International Space Station. (NASA Photo \/ Bill Ingalls) Three more spacefliers arrived at the International Space Station today in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, increasing the orbital outpost\u2019s population from its usual six to a crowded nine. One of [&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":[717,190,352,1302,4063],"class_list":["post-17933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-russia","tag-soyuz","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933"}],"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=17933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}