The launch is scheduled for Wednesday, September 2

Aug 27, 2015 01:15 GMT  ·  By
Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency, Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos and Andreas Mogensen of ESA
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   Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency, Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos and Andreas Mogensen of ESA

Next Wednesday, a Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three astronauts is set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

Should all go as planned, the spacecraft will leave Earth and head into orbit at 12:37 a.m. EDT on the dot (that's 10:34 a.m. Baikonur time).

Its destination: the International Space Station. NASA expects the Soyuz spacecraft and the orbital complex will rendezvous at 3:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, September 4.

Not one to leave us out of the loop, the space agency promises to air both the launch and the docking.

The astronauts who will travel to the International Space Station this coming September 2 are Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency.

Of them, Sergei Volkov will spend 6 months aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth.

Apparently, the International Space Station will get just a bit crowded after this latest arrival, seeing how the complex is already home to 6 other astronauts.

These other space explorers are Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos, Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

All the same, NASA thinks the crew will manage just fine. More so since Padalka, Mogensen and Aimbetov are scheduled to return to Earth on Saturday, September 12, and so there will soon be plenty more room available for the new arrivals.

The International Space Station
The International Space Station

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Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency, Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos and Andreas Mogensen of ESA
The International Space Station
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