Space
NASA Astronauts Plan Historic, Speedy Flight to International Space Station: Watch Today!
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Mar 28, 2013 02:07 PM EDT
NASA astronauts are reaching the International Space Station faster than ever before. The three men plan to make history when they blast off on March 28. Instead of the usual two days, they aim to reach the station in just six hours.
The Soyuz capsule will blast off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But the capsule that will ferry the three men into space doesn't have any special features that make it faster; it doesn't have new systems or a more powerful engine. Instead, the coordination work of the crew is expected to be better.
It doesn't hurt that the space station will be in a perfect position to receive the Soyuz, either. When the spacecraft goes into orbit, the space station itself will shift in order to be right in front of the speeding spacecraft. The same technique has been tested twice before during resupply missions. However, this will be the first time that it will be used with a crewed spacecraft.
"The four-orbit rendezvous has the advantage of a very short period of time from launch to docking," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's International Space program manager, in an interview with Fox News. "It reduces the amount of time the crew has to spend in a small environment before they get to the ISS."
After docking, the three men will spend roughly six months on the space station. The current residents aboard the station include Commander Chris Hadfield and flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko. They're currently performing a full agenda of science and maintenance as they await the arrival of their final three crewmates.
While on the station, the crew will perform experiments and station upkeep, including visits from robotic cargo delivery spacecraft.
The launch itself will take place at 4:43 p.m. EDT, and NASA will be live streaming the event today on NASA TV. You can watch all of the action here.
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First Posted: Mar 28, 2013 02:07 PM EDT
NASA astronauts are reaching the International Space Station faster than ever before. The three men plan to make history when they blast off on March 28. Instead of the usual two days, they aim to reach the station in just six hours.
The Soyuz capsule will blast off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But the capsule that will ferry the three men into space doesn't have any special features that make it faster; it doesn't have new systems or a more powerful engine. Instead, the coordination work of the crew is expected to be better.
It doesn't hurt that the space station will be in a perfect position to receive the Soyuz, either. When the spacecraft goes into orbit, the space station itself will shift in order to be right in front of the speeding spacecraft. The same technique has been tested twice before during resupply missions. However, this will be the first time that it will be used with a crewed spacecraft.
"The four-orbit rendezvous has the advantage of a very short period of time from launch to docking," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's International Space program manager, in an interview with Fox News. "It reduces the amount of time the crew has to spend in a small environment before they get to the ISS."
After docking, the three men will spend roughly six months on the space station. The current residents aboard the station include Commander Chris Hadfield and flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko. They're currently performing a full agenda of science and maintenance as they await the arrival of their final three crewmates.
While on the station, the crew will perform experiments and station upkeep, including visits from robotic cargo delivery spacecraft.
The launch itself will take place at 4:43 p.m. EDT, and NASA will be live streaming the event today on NASA TV. You can watch all of the action here.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone