Two NASA astronauts among crew heading to station
2018-03-21
Three crew members, including NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:44 p.m. CDT March 21.
After a two-day flight, the new crew members will dock to the station’s Poisk docking module at 2:41 p.m. Friday, March 23. About two hours later, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open, and the new residents will be greeted as part of the Expedition 55 crew by station commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The crew members of Expedition 55-56 will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the International Space Station, humanity’s only permanently occupied microgravity laboratory. This crew continues the long-term increase in U.S. crew size from three to four, allowing NASA to maximize time dedicated to research on the space station.
During his flight, former educator Ricky Arnold will wrap up NASA’s Year of Education on Station, an initiative to engage students and educators in human spaceflight and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.
Shkaplerov, Tingle and Kanai are scheduled to remain aboard the station until June 2018, while Feustel, Arnold and Oleg Artemyev are slated to return to Earth in August.
Get breaking news, images and features from the station on Instagram and Twitter at:
http://instagram.com/iss and http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station
The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 21. Image Credit: NASA TV
After a two-day flight, the new crew members will dock to the station’s Poisk docking module at 2:41 p.m. Friday, March 23. About two hours later, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open, and the new residents will be greeted as part of the Expedition 55 crew by station commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The crew members of Expedition 55-56 will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the International Space Station, humanity’s only permanently occupied microgravity laboratory. This crew continues the long-term increase in U.S. crew size from three to four, allowing NASA to maximize time dedicated to research on the space station.
During his flight, former educator Ricky Arnold will wrap up NASA’s Year of Education on Station, an initiative to engage students and educators in human spaceflight and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.
Shkaplerov, Tingle and Kanai are scheduled to remain aboard the station until June 2018, while Feustel, Arnold and Oleg Artemyev are slated to return to Earth in August.
Get breaking news, images and features from the station on Instagram and Twitter at:
http://instagram.com/iss and http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station
The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 21. Image Credit: NASA TV