{"id":19321,"date":"2016-07-09T18:29:45","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T10:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/trio-gets-to-space-station-after-2-day-trip\/"},"modified":"2016-07-09T18:29:45","modified_gmt":"2016-07-09T10:29:45","slug":"trio-gets-to-space-station-after-2-day-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/trio-gets-to-space-station-after-2-day-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Trio gets to space station after 2-day trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_259477\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-259477\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-259477\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2-630x533.jpg\" alt=\"Soyuz spacecraft\" width=\"630\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2-630x533.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2-768x650.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/160708-soyuz2.jpg 1211w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-259477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An upgraded Soyuz spacecraft nears the International Space Station for docking. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first craft in Russia\u2019s upgraded fleet of Soyuz spaceships reached the International Space Station overnight, delivering&nbsp;a trio of U.S., Russian and Japanese spacefliers for their four-month tour of duty.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Kate Rubins, Russia\u2019s Anatoly Ivanishin and Japan\u2019s Takuya Onishi lifted off two days earlier from Russia\u2019s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Soyuz trips to the station typically take only six&nbsp;hours, but Russian mission planners passed up the express route this time to give the crew more time to check out the systems on the upgraded Soyuz MS model.<\/p>\n<p>Compared with past models of the Soyuz, going back almost 50 years, the MS boasts more efficient solar panels; a lighter, faster computer system; more shielding against space debris; and improvements in the docking and navigational systems.<\/p>\n<p>The systems checked out just fine during orbital tests, and the docking proceeded smoothly over the South Pacific at 9:06 p.m. PT&nbsp;Friday. \u201cA textbook arrival for the brand-new Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft,\u201d NASA commentator Rob Navias said.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of hours later, the three crew members opened the hatch and floated into the station for a meet-up with the three spacefliers already aboard the orbital outpost: NASA\u2019s Jeff Williams (the station\u2019s current commander) and Russia\u2019s Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Expedition 48 49 Crew Welcomed to the Space Station\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ExGvJOzcxJo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After the greetings and hugs, the crew gathered for a video link-up with space officials and family members, who were standing by at Russia\u2019s mission control center. Rubins\u2019 husband, Michael Magnani, told his wife \u201cyou seem to be a pro already, floating out of the hatch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot as good as these guys,\u201d said Rubins, pointing a thumb to her crewmates. \u201cYeah, we had a great flight. It was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crew is now at full strength to keep the 17-year-old station running, and they\u2019ll contribute to more than&nbsp;250 scientific experiments being conducted in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Rubins, a biologist, is expected to become the first person&nbsp;to sequence DNA in space during her stint on the station. The thumb-drive-sized sequencing device, known as MiniON, is scheduled to be sent into orbit as soon as July 18 as part of a SpaceX Dragon cargo shipment.<\/p>\n<p>To keep track of the crew as well as NASA\u2019s past and future spacefliers, follow @NASA_Astronauts on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p><em>An earlier version of this report erroneously said the \u201cexpress\u201d trip to the space station took two hours rather than the typical six. Two hours would be the super-express route.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An upgraded Soyuz spacecraft nears the International Space Station for docking. (Credit: NASA) The first craft in Russia\u2019s upgraded fleet of Soyuz spaceships reached the International Space Station overnight, delivering&nbsp;a trio of U.S., Russian and Japanese spacefliers for their four-month tour of duty. NASA\u2019s Kate Rubins, Russia\u2019s Anatoly Ivanishin and Japan\u2019s Takuya Onishi lifted off [&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":[717,190,1302],"class_list":["post-19321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-soyuz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19321"}],"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=19321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}