14 DAY TRIAL // This coming Wednesday, July 22, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:02 p.m. EDT sharp.
The spacecraft will head for the International Space Station and should dock at 10:46 p.m. EDT, after first completing a total of four Earth orbits.
Aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft will be NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, space explorer Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of JAXA.
Should all go well, the three new crew members will join the other astronauts aboard the International Space Station at 12:25 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 23.
“Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos, as well as Flight Engineers Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, will greet Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui,” NASA explains in a statement.
Newcomers Kjell Lindgren, Oleg Kononenko, and Kimiya Yui will remain aboard the International Space Station until later this year. Thus, they will return to Earth in late December.
Together with the existing crew, Kjell Lindgren, Oleg Kononenko, and Kimiya Yui will get to work conducting experiments in biology, physical science, Earth science, and biotechnology.
While the new arrivals will come back on the ground by the end of the year, Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos will remain in orbit until March 2016.
As for Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos, he is scheduled to return to Earth this September, when Scott Kelly will assume command of Expedition 45.