Watch "Fast-Track" Launch of Soyuz Live

By Nancy Atkinson - March 28, 2013 at 8:29 PM UTC | Space Exploration
soyuz-docking.jpg

Live video by Ustream

Watch live the first "fast-track" human Soyuz flight to the International Space Station. The Soyuz TMA-08M crew will arrive at the ISS just five hours and 49 minutes after launch instead of the usual two days. Commander Pavel Vinogradov, flight engineer Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy are scheduled for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 20:43 UTC (4:43:20 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, March 28, 2013. (If you missed the launch live, watch the video of it below:)

This is the first Soyuz crew to try out the new abbreviated four-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station (in the past it has been 34 orbits.) This relatively new, modified launch and docking profile for the Russian ships has been tried successfully with three Progress resupply vehicles, and now Roscosmos and NASA have agreed to try it on a human flight.

If all goes well, the crew will dock at the Poisk module around 02:31 UTC on March 29 (10:32 p.m. EDT March 28). They will be joining the Expedition 35 crew already aboard: commander Chris Hadfield, Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko.

Here's a great explanation of the "fast-track" launch from Space.com:

Source

SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

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