ISS Expedition 30 Crew Members Launch to Station Onboard A Soyuz Rocket

NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit, Russian Soyuz Commander
Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency Flight Engineer Andre
Kuipers of the Netherlands launched to the International Space
Station aboard their Soyuz TMA-03M craft at 7:16 a.m. CST Wednesday,
Dec. 21 (7:16 p.m. local time), from Kazakhstan.

Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers are scheduled to dock to the Rassvet
module of the station at 9:22 a.m. Friday, Dec. 23. They will receive
a holiday welcome from station Commander Dan Burbank of NASA and
Russian Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, who
have been aboard the orbital laboratory since mid-November.

NASA Television will provide live docking coverage beginning at 8:45
a.m. Friday. Hatch opening and welcoming ceremonies will occur about
three hours later.

Upon arrival, Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will become members of
Expedition 30, restoring the station's crew complement to six. They
will continue scientific research and christen a new era of
commercial resupply services from the United States, greeting the
first SpaceX Dragon spaceship in mid-February. A Russian spacewalk to
continue external assembly and maintenance of the station also is
planned during Expedition 30.

Burbank, Shkaplerov and Ivanishin are scheduled to return to Earth in
March, and Pettit, Kononenko and Kuipers will return home in May.

Category:

Science & Technology

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