Soyuz spacecraft docks at ISS
July 23, 2015
After two months of delay, a successful launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan brought commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency, flight engineer Kjell Lindgren of NASA and flight engineer Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the International Space Station.
The Soyuz TMA-17M vehicle blasted off at 2102 UTC on Wednesday, and arrived at the ISS around 0245 UTC on Thursday, 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth. This is the first trip to space for Lindgren and Yui, and the first time in six weeks the station will be operating with the full six-person crew.
"We look forward to seeing them," U.S. station flight engineer Scott Kelly said during an inflight interview on Tuesday.
Yui, Lindgren and Kononenko join Russia's Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko, and the US' Scott Kelly. Kelly and Kornienko are four months into a year-long mission on the station. Yui told reporters in a pre-launch news conference that he was bringing sushi with him as a treat.
No Room For Error
Soyuz was originally supposed to launch on May 26, but the space agencies delayed the launch after an unsuccessful launch on April 28 of Progress, an unmanned Russian cargo ship loaded with three tons of equipment and supplies.
An accident at launch stranded Progress in a low orbit, rendering it unable to reach the station. Nine days later Progress fell back through the atmosphere and was incinerated.
The Progress accident raised concerns about the Russian rockets, but engineers successfully launched a replacement cargo ship in early July.
Two other US companies, Space X and Orbital ATK, also recently experienced failed launches on supply runs.
"We're confident in the rocket ... we're all very excited to launch," Lindgren said at the pre-launch news conference. "It's certainly no fun to see several of the cargo vehicles undergo mishaps. It underscores the difficulty of this industry and ... how unforgiving the space environment is."
Another supply line, operated by Japan, is scheduled to launch in August.
mes/kms (AP, dpa, Reuters)