At 3:02 am local time, the manned Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Four orbits of the Earth later, the capsule containing three new crew members rendezvoused with the ISS and successfully docked.
Although the launch and docking were successful, the flight did suffer a slight mishap. One of the solar arrays that supplies the Soyuz capsule with power did not deploy on time. Both Russian and US officials said the mishap did not affect the flight and that the other solar arrays operated nominally.
Wednesday’s launch had been delayed after the loss of the Progress cargo spacecraft in April. The mission was set to deliver supplies and scientific experiments to the orbiting station. However, shortly after separation the spacecraft spun out of control and could not be recovered.
“I think from a crew standpoint, the extra two months have given us time for some refresher training and the opportunity to rest a little bit more than a crew normally would have in terms of preparing for flight,” Lindgren said.
Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui are now the 217th and 218th people to board the International Space Station. The two astronauts, as well as Oleg Kononenko, will stay aboard the ISS until late December before returning back home to Earth. The crew will now set about unpacking supplies brought with them on the journey. Over the next 5 months Lindgren, Yui and Kononenko will carry out several hundred experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science - science that will benefit us here on Earth.