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After a six-week delay, the crew of Expedition 31 successfully launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-04M rocket on Tuesday, May 15 at 0301 GMT (11:01 p.m. EDT May 14) from Russia’s historic Baikonur Cosmodrome, located in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The rocket will deliver NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin to the International Space Station. After a two-day journey, their Soyuz capsule will dock with the ISS at 11:38 p.m. CDT on Wednesday.
The launch was aired live by NASA HD TV. The full launch can be viewed below:
The crew was originally slated to launch on March 30, but problems with a pressure test forced a delay until a new Soyuz rocket could be brought into service. In the meantime ISS crew members Don Pettit, ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko have had the station to themselves since April 27.
The three new crew members will remain on Space Station until mid-September, serving as flight engineers under Expedition 31 commander Oleg Kononenko until July 1, when the current crew will depart and Padalka will assume command, marking the beginning of Expedition 32.
For more news on Expedition 31, visit NASA’s ISS website here. Also, you can follow NASA astronaut Joe Acaba on Twitter @AstroAcaba.
Video credit: NASA TV. Images: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Way to go “FruitLoops” 🙂
Damn, I intended to say the same. 😀
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I love how grungy the Russian hardware and launch facility is. Theres something decidedly functional about the arms that swing at an angle, and the desert, and the fact that everything is painted green indicating the military heritage. In the US its all pretty painted white, and the area around the launch facility looks like a beautifully manicured lawn.
True. The Russian Cosmodrome, I love that name btw, can be described with one word; Dieselpunk.
I dunno… that “beautifully manicured lawn” is full of snakes and gators! 🙂
yeah but im sure the launch takes care of that 🙂
Soyuz graveyard, and other interesting Russian space equipment:
http://saoirse-2010.livejournal.com/19823.html
Among the images are actual return vehicles.
Quite the contrast, considering the recent media coverage for Enterprise and Endeavour.
Thanks – very interesting! you kinda feel sorry for them, lost, busted up and forgotten. No honour afforded to them for the dreams they helped make true, for the flawless performance and the people returned safely to earth.
http://goo.gl/VWJLp