SOYUZ TMA 9 LAUNCH / EXP. 14 / ANOUSHEH

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin are scheduled to arrive at the station at 1:24 a.m. Wednesday. Flying to the station with them will be American Anousheh Ansari, the first female spaceflight participant to visit the orbiting laboratory. She is flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will replace Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Science Officer Jeff Williams, who are wrapping up a six-month stay on the station. European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter will remain on the station and join Expedition 14.

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[telescopereplicator]

With well over 1700 launches and only 1 abort and and 2 incomplete launches, the R7-based rockets are the best and most reliable rockets ever built. The R7/A2 rocket, used to launch people, has a success rate of 99.9966 percent. Which is better than ANY other type of rocket ever built.

Russian rocket engines are so good, that more and more American rockets are now equipped with Russian rocket engines.....! The Atlas rockets, f.i. use the RD-180.

[Kolfritz]

It's amazing how reliable the Soyuz system is.

[DraperGaming]

They let the engines run on the pad to allow them to reach full power. the umbilical arms provide a constant supply of fuel during the final phase of the countdown.

[1joshjosh1]

LETS GO!!! thanks yugi!!

[ITSbigwillystyle]

Yea, but it consumed a ridiculously large amount of fuel just to get to orbit.

[telescopereplicator]

With only 13 launches... I am not surprised....! Doh.....

The Saturn V certainly WOULD have failed more often, going by the reports of the men who launched them and flew with them. You have NO idea how often these Saturns V were an inch from failure. If you know how many things went (almost) wrong it's a miracle all 13 launches were successful. Can you guess why they never used such big engines again....? ;-)

(FYI : the R7 is mass-produced, the S-V's were adapted for each mission)

[Rick Lucas]

The Saturn V hasn't ever failed

[Nicholas Mattiello]

I couldnt withstand being in such a confined space let alone a confined space being launched out into space.

[SladkaPritomnost]

I think the key factor for reliability is simplicity.

[camelhound1]

they're at final countdown. there's soyuz 2, scheduled to launch 10 minutes after soyuz 1.

[staranjela]

good work here

[CaptainSn0wMan]

im curious way do they wait a while before unlaching the rocket after its lit? and why do they have those 4 laches on it the bottom holding it? is it the russian version of the american launch post or sumthind?