Soyuz astronauts on board the ISS, but the arrival is not running smoothly – The Messenger

Check the perfect Soyuz, arriving on time in orbit, but then some delay in docking maneuvers, which, in space, always ends to trigger some concern. Although in the end – to think of our earthly tribulations by commuters – What will never be 31 minutes on the way from the Earth to the international station in the stars? He lived indeed some apprehension the first stage of the mission of the new crew that brings to six tenants ISS.

Start the mission by the book: the doll the robot C1b8 began to fluctuate light and happy in the cockpit a little less than nine minutes after the launch, which took place at 23:03 on Wednesday, when the Soyuz , exceeded the 100 km hurtling at 28,800 mph, got rid of a slice of the attraction of the Earth. At that point the most delicate phase of the launch was over and the three astronauts were able to breathe a sigh of relief with the first control centers Baikonur in Kazakhstan (from where the Soyuz was taken off), Moscow and Houston. Kjell Lindgren NASA, Oleg Kononenko Russia’s space agency Roscosmos and Kimiya Yui, Japan’s space agency, took just under six hours to reach the ISS.

The opening of the door instead took place with 31 minutes of behind schedule (at 6.56 and at 6.25 Italian time). The docking of the shuttle had been recorded at 4.45 as expected, but when you opened the door, the captain, the legendary veteran Russian Gennady Padalka has had some difficulty because equalize the pressure between the Soyuz and the station took longer expected. As soon as the situation has stabilized the hatch was opened and the first to enter floating was the commander of the Soyuz, the Russian Oleg Kononenko. Mechanical engineer, Kononenko is 51 and has already been twice the ISS in 2008 and 2012.

This is the first time instead for his two companions: the American astronaut Kjell Lindgren, doctor of 42 years grew between the United States and England and the Japanese Kimiya Yui, 45, flight engineer. All three will remain on station until the end of December: with their launch shooting routine flights to the space station after the incident at the Russian Progress cargo, on April 28 last year, had to reprogram the whole calendar of arrivals and departures .

The launch of the three astronauts was initially scheduled for last May 26 and was postponed after the accident. For the same reason the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, astronaut with the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), was extended by one month its stay in orbit, delaying the return to Earth.

To welcome the new tenants, with Padalka are Scott Kelly of NASA, and Mikhail Kornienko. All six will be the first astronauts designed to collect and eat the first vegetables grown aboard the station, a necessary step in view of future missions to Mars. The astronauts will eat half of the second crop of lettuce, the rest will be frozen and sent to Earth to study plant and compare them to a control group cultivated at the Kennedy Space Center of NASA.