The 11th crew of the International Space Station is on its way to its new home-away-from- home in orbit. The Expedition 11 crew rocketed into space tonight aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, beginning a six-month mission.
The spacecraft carried Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA Station Science Officer and Flight Engineer John Phillips into orbit along with European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori. This will be the 10th Soyuz mission to dock with the Station.
The Soyuz launched at 8:46 p.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, while the Station was flying north east approximately 230 miles above the southern Atlantic Ocean. With Krikalev at the controls, the Soyuz is on course to dock with the Station at 10:19 p.m. EDT, Saturday.
The hatches between the newly arrived Soyuz and the Station will be opened about 1:05 a.m. EDT, Sunday. Live NASA TV coverage of docking and hatch opening begins at 9 p.m. EDT, Saturday.
Krikalev and Phillips will stay aboard the Station until October, while Vittori will spend eight days conducting experiments. The Expedition 10 crew, Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov, have been doing research and maintaining the orbiting laboratory since October. With Vittori, they will return to Earth on April 24.
The Expedition 11 crew will have the honor of opening the Station’s door for Space Shuttle Discovery’s crew during the Return to Flight mission (STS-114), planned for next month. Information about crew activities on the Station, future launch dates, and sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/station