Spectacular Night Launch for Soyuz Crew

By Nancy Atkinson - December 15, 2010 at 11:54 AM UTC | Missions
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With a spectacular night launch, the remainder of the Expedition 26 crew are now headed to the International Space Station on board a Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft. NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:09 p.m. EST Wednesday (1909 UTC and 1:09 a.m. local in Kazakhstan) on Wednesday, Dec. 16. Video from inside the capsule showed the crew riding comfortably during their ascent.

The trio are scheduled to dock to the station's Rassvet docking port at 3:12 p.m EST onFriday, Dec. 17. Just in time for the holidays, they will join Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, already on board the ISS.

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You can watch the docking on NASA TV, beginning at 2:30 p.m. EST Coverage of the hatches opening and a welcoming ceremony aboard the station will begin at 5:30 p.m.

With a full compliment of six, Expedition 26 will be busy with scientific research and regular maintenance, but there will also be two Russian-segment spacewalks, and a variety of visiting resupply ships: a Japanese HTV cargo ship will arrive at the end of January, a Russian Progress re-supply ship will also come just before, hopefully, space shuttle Discovery arrives in early February -- given the repairs of the external tank go well, and then a European Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, arrives at the end of February.

After that, The shuttle Endeavour is scheduled launch in early April along with another Progress later that month.

[caption id="attachment_81736" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Soyuz launch on Dec. 15, 2010. Photo credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi"]

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com