3 Astronauts Blast off for International Space Station
Channel: ISLAM
Date: 2017-12-17

Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, center, U.S. astronaut Scott Tingle, right, and Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai, members of the main crew of the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), walk to report to members of the State Committee prior the launch of Soyuz MS-07 space ship at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, pool) The Associated Press
 
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — A capsule carrying three astronauts from Russia, Japan and the United States has blasted off for a two-day trip to the International Space Station.
The Soyuz capsule with Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige Kanai and Scott Tingle launched at 1:23 p.m. (0723 GMT; 2:23 a.m. EST) Sunday from Russia's manned space-launch complex in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It entered orbit nine minutes later.
It is the first space flight for Tingle and Kanai; Shkaplerov is on his third mission to the ISS.
The capsule is to dock on Tuesday with the orbiting space laboratory. The three will join Russia's Alexander Misurkin and Joe Acaba and Mark Vandde Hei of NASA, who have been aboard since September.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, The two-day trip to the ISS has started from the launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin for the first journey into space in the history of humankind.
BAIKONUR COSMODROME (Kazakhstan), (Sputnik) — A Russian Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-07 manned spacecraft lifted off on Sunday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to deliver the crew of Expedition 54/55 to the International Space Station (ISS), a Sputnik correspondent reported from the launch site.
The rocket was launched from the pad Yuri Gagarin used for the first journey into space in the history of humankind.
According to the correspondent, the aircraft has currently separated from the third stage of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket.
The two-day trip is scheduled to finish at 8:42 GMT Tuesday, when members of the crew, comprising the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and JAXA astronaut Norishige Kanai will dock with the ISS.
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On the station, the crew will implement applied scientific research programs and experiments, carry out spacewalks as well as work with Progress MS cargo vehicles and US Dragon ships.
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