Soyuz blasts off with veteran crew bound for space station,
A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off and shot into orbit Wednesday, carrying a Russian cosmonaut and two NASA astronauts, all veteran space fliers, on a two-day flight to the International Space Station.
With Soyuz MS-08/54S commander Oleg Artemyev at the controls in the spacecraft's center seat, flanked on the left by flight engineer Drew Feustel and on the right by Ricky Arnold, the workhorse booster's main engines ignited with a crackling roar at 1:44 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 11:44 p.m. local time) and quickly throttled up to full thrust.
After last-second checks, the booster was released from its firing stand and the rocket climbed away into a clear, night sky atop a brilliant jet of flaming exhaust. Launching directly into the plane of the space station's orbit, the rocket arced away to the east and slowly faded from view as it accelerated toward space.
After helping push the rocket out of the thick lower atmosphere, the Soyuz FG's four liquid-fueled strap-on boosters fell away as planned about two minutes after liftoff and the flight continued on the power of the rocket's central core and upper stage.
Live television views from inside the central command module showed Artemyev calmly monitoring cockpit displays while Feustel and Arnold followed along, all three looking relaxed.
"Everything is fine on board," Artemyev reported. "We're doing excellent." Toward the end of the climb to space, he added "the crew's mood is festive."
Post a Comment Blogger Facebook