HOUSTON, Oct. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA
astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian
cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg
Novitskiy launched aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket on their
mission to the International Space Station at 5:51 a.m. CDT Tuesday (4:51 p.m. Kazakhstan time). The trio lifted off from
Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This is the first time in 28 years
the pad has been used for human spaceflight.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO
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Ford, Tarelkin and Novitskiy will spend the next two days inside
their Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft as they close in on the space
station. Novitskiy is serving as the commander of the Soyuz and
will be at the controls as the spacecraft docks with the Poisk
module of the station Thursday. The three will join Expedition 33
Commander Sunita Williams of NASA
and Flight Engineers Aki Hoshide of
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Yuri Malenchenko of the
Russian Federal Space Agency, who have been living aboard the
orbiting laboratory since July.
NASA TV will provide live coverage of the Soyuz docking
beginning at 7 a.m. CDT (8 a.m. EDT) Thursday. Coverage of the hatch
opening and welcome ceremony aboard the space station will begin at
9:45 a.m. Hatch opening is scheduled
for approximately 10:15 a.m.
Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will remain aboard the station
until March 2013. Williams,
Malenchenko and Hoshide will return to Earth Nov. 19. When Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide
undock from the station, it will signal the end of Expedition 33
and the beginning of Expedition 34 with Ford as commander.
For NASA TV downlink information, up-to-date schedules and links
to streaming video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For information on the International Space Station and the
Expedition 33 crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
SOURCE NASA