NASA Sets Coverage for Launch, Docking of New Space Station Crew

A NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts are set to launch to the International Space Station on Friday, Sept. 15. The U.S. space agency will provide full coverage of launch and crew’s arrival at the microgravity laboratory.

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub are scheduled to lift off on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:44 a.m. EDT (8:44 p.m. Baikonur time).

Coverage will begin at 10:45 a.m. on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Watch online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

O’Hara, who will begin a six-month mission aboard the station, and Kononenko and Chub, who will both spend a year on the orbital outpost, will fly on a quick two-orbit, three-hour trajectory that will result in a docking to the station’s Rassvet module at 2:56 p.m. A short time later, hatches between the station and the Soyuz will open and the crew will be welcomed aboard.

The trio will join the space station’s Expedition 69 crew of NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Frank Rubio, Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin, Konstantin Borisov, and Sergey Prokopyev, as well ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.

This will be the first spaceflight for O’Hara and Chub, and the fifth flight for Kononenko.

Mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):

10:45 a.m. – Launch coverage begins

2 p.m. – Rendezvous and docking coverage begins

4:45 p.m. – Hatch opening and welcome remarks coverage begins

Keep up with the International Space Station, its research, and crew at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

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Lora Bleacher / Julian Coltre
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
lora.v.bleacher@nasa.gov / julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov