Upcoming Launches and Landings

December will be a busy month for the International Space Station. Within a three week period, Expedition 58 will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, SpaceX will launch its 16th Cargo Mission, and Expedition 57 will return to Earth from the orbiting laboratory.

Expedition 58 Launch

Date: December 3, 2018 – 5:31 a.m. CT

NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos will launch to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 3 and arrive just 6 hours later. The group will complete a six-and-a-half-month mission in space, completing hundreds of science experiments before returning to Earth in 2019.

SpaceX Cargo Mission

Date: December 4, 2018 – 12:38 p.m. CT

An uncrewed SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft will lift off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, delivering supplies and equipment after a 2-day journey to the International Space Station. This mission will include the launch of the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation lidar, a NASA mission to measure the world’s forests and provide detail about the Earth’s carbon cycle.

Expedition 57 Landing

Date: December 19, 2018 – 11:03 p.m. CT

Astronauts Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), and cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the International Space Station and land in Kazakhstan on Dec. 19. During their six months in space, the crew delivered the first 8K video from the ISS and even celebrated a Thanksgiving meal on station.

Each of these launches and landings will be broadcast on NASA TV and NASA Live.