Expedition 49 crew lifts off for International Space Station - Watch

Image courtesy: NASA

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Russian Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft carrying crew members of Expedition 49/50 successfully lifted off for the International Space Station on Wednesday.

The spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at sharp 4:05 a.m. EDT carrying three NASA astronauts-  Shane Kimbrough, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, who will travel for two days in the Soyuz MS-02 orbiting the Earth 34 times before docking to the space station’s Poisk module at 5:59 a.m. Friday, Oct. 21.

Hatches between the Soyuz and station will open at approximately 8:35 a.m., and the arriving crew will be welcomed on board by Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who have been aboard the complex since July. NASA TV coverage of hatch opening and welcoming ceremonies will begin at 8 a.m.

The three astronauts will spend a little more than four months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in late February. The full six-person crew will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the International Space Station, humanity’s only microgravity laboratory.

Watch the launch of Soyuz MS-02 to International Space Station. The video has been tweeted by NASA.

AND LIFTOFF! Launch of @Astro_Kimbrough & crewmates launching to @Space_Station. Watch: https://t.co/KX5g7zfYQe pic.twitter.com/CuqhiCGwDw

— NASA (@NASA) October 19, 2016