14 DAY TRIAL // Three astronauts are currently bound to the International Space Station (ISS), after they successfully blasted off on Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. The space fliers are scheduled to reach the station tomorrow, where they will hook up with the other two members of Expedition 22, who are already on board the orbital lab. One of the astronauts currently in orbit is the future commander of the ISS, and he is scheduled to take over command in March 2010, Space reports.
The three people aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 space capsule are NASA astronaut Timothy Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. While the American flier is at his first mission to the space station, the others are veterans, having each completed a tour of duty before the current flight. Waiting for them aboard the ISS are NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, the current leader of Expedition 22, as well as RosCosmos flight engineer Maxim Suraev. The two have been alone in space since early December.
“Everything is fine onboard the vehicle. Everybody feels great, no problems, no issues,” Kotov said as the rocket was heading for low-Earth orbit. The blast-off took place on time, at 4:52 pm EDT (2152 GMT), on Sunday evening. The Russian-built, Soviet-era capsule is scheduled to link up with the ISS tomorrow, at around 5:58 pm EDT (2258 GMT), after about two days of chasing the space facility in orbit. “Congratulations to the entire team on another milestone event. We're looking forward to their arrival in two short days,” Williams radioed back to Mission Control.
During its mission, Expedition 22 will have a lot on its plate, including two space shuttle visits, of which one will carry up a new module for the space station. Furthermore, a number of additional, unmanned spacecraft are scheduled to dock on the ISS as well. This won't be a problem for Russian-built Soyuz and Progress capsules, as the station now has four docking ports for these types of spacecraft. Two of these ports are occupied by the Soyuz lifeboats, which remain there at all times.
“Really it's going to be [a] very tense mission for us. We're going to work with two shuttle crews, one of them bringing up the new module,” Kotov said in a preflight interview about the challenges ahead for Expedition 22. “Believe me, it's really exciting and I'm really looking forward to it,” he added. The most important additions to the laboratory will be the Node 3 (Tranquility) module, and the 360-degree Cupola, which will make it easier for astronauts to work with the robotic arms.