NASA TV coverage now is underway for the launch of a crewed Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov. The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:55 a.m. EDT (8:55 p.m. Baikonur time). Launch and docking activities will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website.
After a three-hour and 10-minute flight, the Soyuz will dock to the station’s Prichal module at 3:05 p.m. About two hours after docking, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open.
Once on station, the trio will join Expedition 66 Commander Anton Shkaplerov and cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos, as well as NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer.
Coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):
Friday, March 18
11:15 a.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for 11:55 a.m. launch
2:15 p.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for 3:05 p.m. docking
5:15 p.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for hatch opening
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on Twitter, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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