Watch Three New Crew Members Launch to the International Space Station

So it's morning at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are already atop the 160-foot-tall Soyuz booster ready for today's lunch in an hour at 12:45 a.m. Central Time, 10:45 a.m. m. in Baikonur. This is a live view. of the Soyuz rocket on the Site 31

launch

pad at Bike Norm. This is the second raw

launch

of the upgraded Soyuz 2.1, a booster that made its first un

crew

ed flight with a Soyuz

space

craft on the Internet to the

international

space

station

in the summer of 2019. First flight with people on board on a new Soyuz 2.1a booster launched from Site 31 in April this year.

Today, a team of launch controllers is monitoring all systems aboard the rocket, which is now fully fueled and ready for launch. There are no problems. Monitoring throughout the day today, beginning with fuel and oxidizer loading at approximately 7:45 p.m. Tuesday Central Time, which is 3:45 a.m. m. Wednesday at the launch site in Baccanor. Charging was completed about two hours later. Hello everyone, from mission control in Houston. I'm Brandi Dean. Here at mission control, the team is monitoring the Expedition 63

crew

and space

station

systems and preparing to support the arrival of the Soyuz MS-17. The station's population will increase from

three

to six with The addition of NASA astronaut Kate Rubens, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kutzberzkov and Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz commander Sergey Rizhkov, these

three

are about to participate in the first planned two-orbit flight to the

international

space station with humans on board and docking is scheduled approximately three hours after launch at 3:52 a.m. m. central time or 1:52 p.m. m.

Wednesday, October 14 in Baikonur, where NASA and Rose Cosmo support teams and officials will

watch

events unfold. The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft will dock at the Rosvett docking port on the Earth-facing side of the Russian segment of the space station once there. The crew will join the three current space station residents on board: NASA astronaut and space station commander Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Yvonne Wagner arrived at the space station aboard Soyuz MS-16 In April, Sergey Rizhikov will assume command of Expedition 64 commander at a change of command ceremony before the crew goes to sleep on October 20, the day before Cassidy Ivanishin and Wagner undock from the station and return to the station.

Ground aboard the Soyuz MS-16, Rubens Rizzikov and Kutzkerchov will stay behind to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Human Presence aboard the International Space Station arriving soon on November 2. Meanwhile, here in Houston, the mission control team will monitor today's launch and receive flight updates from their Russian counterparts. Flight director Marcos Flores will be at the console. for the launch of soyuz today and capcom for the launch today is astronaut isa andreas mogensen during tracking the ascended orbit of soyuz and telemetry is connected to ground stations along its flight path and heads to the center of Russian mission control outside Moscow, which you're

watch

ing A view from here and throughout tonight's coverage we will try to answer your questions about the launch, which you can submit via social media.

If you have any questions you would like us to answer, you can send them to us now using the hashtag. Asknasa we will try to answer some of them soon, so go ahead and send them. We copy well. Today's launch marks the second flight into space for NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, the second for Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz MS-17 commander Sergey Ryzhikov, and the first for Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kuzkov of russ cosmos, Let's take a moment to learn more about NASA astronaut Dr Kate Rubens' next flight to space and her work aboard the International Space Station. The reason you would do any type of experiment in space is if there is something particular about it. space environment is usually microgravity, so the ISS gives us the ability to do something that we can't do in a facility on Earth or investigate some phenomenon, some property in a way that we can't do on Earth.

So, for example, part of the architecture of the tissues, these really delicate tissues, as you start to build them, they would collapse because you have gravity or the cells would naturally settle to the bottom of the plate, so you just can't study the answer to the question. question you're looking for for the space station to allow us to have that ability to test what the effect of gravity is or eliminate that problem completely from our experimental setup. Yes, the space station is an amazing place to conduct research. It was something like that. being in the most amazing lab in the world when I was there in 2016.

So when you're a scientist, you're used to working on one thing over and over again and maybe really refining the details over the course of a PhD thesis or a project. laboratory on a space station, you get someone's incredibly refined project multiplied by 200 different fields, so for me it was an opportunity to learn about all these different areas of science and each of them has a team behind it, so I was usually very excited to open the container and do whatever experiments they brought, I also had the opportunity to talk to the principal investigators and the scientific teams and understand everything that was happening behind their experiments and read their articles, so when I started doing the experiment was already I was very excited to take it out and see what was going to change in microgravity.

Yes, science in space is an amazing laboratory and it's incredibly fun, so we're smiling all the time. I'm Kate Rubins, I'm a scientist and astronaut and raised in Napa, California, NASA astronaut Dr Kate Rubins did her undergraduate research on HIV-1 integration at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies Infectious Diseases Laboratory and earned a B.S. in molecular biology from the University of California San Diego in 1999. He earned a PhD in cancer biology from the Department of Biochemistry and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine at the Medical Disease Research Institute. rubens and his colleagues developed the first model of smallpox infection, which they also studied.

Rubens then accepted a fellowship as a principal investigator at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and led a laboratory of 14 researchers studying viral diseases primarily affecting central and western Africa. She presented her work at numerous international scientific conferences and was published in many scientific journals and then, in July 2009, after applying on a whim, Rubens was selected as one of nine

members

of the NASA astronaut class of 2009. She He first launched into space aboard Soyuz MS-1 in 2016 as part of Expeditions 48 and 49. During that mission, Rubens became the first person to sequence DNA in space.

Additionally, she performed two spacewalks alongside astronaut Jeff Williams, installing the first docking port for American commercial crew spacecraft. Rubens is seated to the right of the Soyuz commander. Rose Cosmos cosmonaut Sergey Rizhikov, who returns to space for the second time today, was born in Bogoma, Tatarstan, Russia. Rizhikov went to high school and the young aviator school in the Tumen region of Russia, then attended the Katja air force pilot school and graduated in 1996 as a pilot engineer. Richkoff served as a pilot in the Russian Air Force from 1996 to 2007. At the time of his election to the cosmonaut corps he was a military pilot second class and had logged more than 700 flight hours piloting the L-9 and the Mig-29. planes is certified as a military diver officer and parachute instructor with over 350 parachute jumps after beginning his training in 2006 as a member of class 14 of the gagarin cosmonaut training center cosmonaut core rizhikov completed his basic space flight training in 2009 qualifying as a cosmonaut test, his first trip to space was in 2016 as commander of Soyuz MS O2 and he is a flight engineer for expeditions 49 and 50 of the space station.

While on board, he conducted dozens of Russian scientific program experiments in medicine, space biology, biotechnology, physics and chemistry, among others. sign this favor a reference to mount tabor in israel rizhikov serves as commander of ms-17 and will also become commander of the space station when expedition 64 begins sitting to his left is the first time for the fire pink cosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kuzkurskov was born in Lennisk now Baikonur in the Cozlorate region of Kazakhstan, Kudzkritchkov went to secondary school in Korolev in the Moscow region of Russia and graduated in 2000 in 2006 he graduated with first class honors from the Bauman Technical University of Moscow as a rocket engine engineer and then worked at the Inergia Rocket and Space Corporation as an engineer from 2006 to 2009.

In 2010 he was admitted to class 17 of the cosmonaut corps of Inergia Rocket and Space Corporation completing his training and qualifying as a test cosmonaut. in 2012. From August 2012 to October 2019 he took advanced courses. Specialized training in the space station program working from the left seat today is the soyuz ms-17 flight engineer, a kudzkurchgov will sail aboard the space station as a flight engineer of expedition 64, once again, we are answering questions online through the hashtag ask nasa so if you follow us on social media you can ask us your questions and we have a couple that have already been submitted and we'll go ahead and try to answer you now.

This first one comes from Rob Wood in the UK and he asks when. Will Chris Cassidy return from the space station? Cassidy is now on board with two other Russian cosmonauts and they will all return next week. They will have a short turnaround time in which they can ensure that their colleagues are on their way. today they will be ready to take care of the space station once they are gone and then return home on October 21, just as tonight you will be able to see all of our coverage of those events starting with their undocking and then a return to Kazakhstan where will land, that coverage will begin at 7 p.m.

CT on Wednesday, October 21, just one week from now. We also have a second question, this one comes from Omar and he asks whether astronauts ever suffer from motion sickness or not, and it varies from astronaut to astronaut, but there are definitely some who suffer from a little bit of motion sickness when they first go to space and then Also when they come back from space, they tend to have it. They may have trouble adjusting to the return of gravity to their lives. That can be a little difficult on both ends, so when they arrive at the space station they are given a little time to adjust.

There is some time built in. Enter your schedule specifically for the microgravity adjustment and then once they get back, a lot of times you'll see that the people supporting them on the ground are very careful to help them get around, make sure they have some support once they arrive. out of the spaceship and back to solid ground to make sure they have all the help they can get, adjusting to that first feeling of gravity for once after they're back, you can keep sending them using the hashtag ask. NASA, but one of the questions we often get is about the cruise patch and now we have a clip of Kate Rubens explaining that during a recent press conference the 64 patch is actually a photograph I took when I was on board. time and it's the bottom of the international space station as we fly over the lights of the cities in Europe and you can see all the lights of these cities reflected on the bottom of the space station.

I thought it was that cool. analogy of the connection between Earth and space and the fact that you have lights in these cities below and they reflect on the space station and then you can see, of course, the space station pass above one of those cities. at night now with a live view of the soyuz on the launch pad at baikonur as we continue our coverage of kate rubins sergey rizhikov and sergey kuzkov's launch to the international space station we are now 45 minutes away from today's launch with liftoff scheduled for 12 45 am central time 10 45 am in baikonur and just a reminder that we are answering those questions, so keep submitting them using the hashtag ask nasa what's up 20. one minute 21 seconds for the first 141 for the second year the pressure is 816. in the descent module in the second section it is 208 and 224 in the second section I also have 16-3.

I understand that thesuits are airtight. I have also received oxygen pressure inside the vehicle. I understand foreigner like me. I was saying that you can send us your questions using the hashtag "Ask NASA" and we have some more ready for you now. The next one comes from Pratham and asks how long these astronauts will stay on board the space station. The plan right now is for them to stay about six months, which is about the standard amount of time, that always depends a little bit on the circumstances, but in this case, and for the most part, the astronauts will stay about six months in a time that gives them a good opportunity to get used to the international space station and really delve into the work that's done there and contribute to the science that the space station does and keep it in good working order and we also have another One of them coming of Dan asking how many astronauts the space station can accommodate and how many there are right now.

We just had the three Expedition 60 to 63 crew

members

waiting for this new influx of uh. astronauts who are on their way today, once they get there, of course, there will be six for a short period of time and then they will soon be joined by the spacex crew, a crew they will launch with in November and joining them will add four more people to the space station, bringing the total to seven, which we hope will be the normal number for the space station crew now that its commercial crew partners are starting to launch crews. to the international space station that is not the limit of what the space station can accommodate, although that will be the normal operational amount, but when there are handovers like we will experience this week while Chris Cassidy is uh is uh welcoming Kate Rubens and her partner of crew to the space station there will be a few more there, so there could be up to nine or ten there at a time.

Good thank you. In a moment we will begin to see some videos that have been recorded. throughout the day as the crew goes through their pre-launch activities today, but again, you can keep submitting those questions using the hashtag "ask nasa" and we'll try to answer a few more before today's broadcast ends. is the promised video showing what the crew has been doing today as they prepared for launch. Today's activities at Baikonur began several hours ago when the crew woke up around 2 p.m. Central time on Tuesday or midnight local time on Wednesday in Baikonur around 10 a.m. and 45 minutes ahead of your launch crew members here you can see participating in that modern tradition that they always do in baikonur signing the doors of their rooms that they stayed in in their crew rooms are in the cosmonaut hotel in uh in baikonur city around 5:45 pm central time on tuesday 3:45 am. on wednesday in baikonur, the crew left the cosmonaut hotel and boarded the bus for a 40 minute ride to the integration and student facilities which are in building 254 inside the cosm, the baikonur cosmodrome, you can see it.

I'm leaving the hotel here, the crowd is much more limited than usual due to restrictions associated with coronavirus precautions, still only a few people were able to attend, that is carefully controlled, but normally the crew family would be there, as well as a nice contingent of VIPs, but that was not possible for this launch due to those precautions. Getting back on the bus here to take that 40 minute ride to the building where you'll be donning your spacesuits, the integration and clothing facilities, waving a few last ones. goodbye to the crowd that was able to come out and see how the crew spends their last weeks.

Before launch, at that hotel, they have a little time to rest and do some last minute studying to make sure they are ready for launch. all the activities that come with this and leaving here from Baikonur, the cosmonaut hotel in Baikonur, again, heading to the building where they put on their so-called space suits, this trip takes about 40 minutes and then they arrive at the integration building. where each crew member underwent final medical examinations and then suited up in their launch and entry suits, the suits are pressurized to ensure they do not leak while program officials watch through protective glass that helps them to keep the quarantine suit in place, it takes about five and one and a half hours or is completed about five and a half hours before launch Sergey Rizhikov is there checking his space suit and Sergey Kudzburch called there, okay, okay, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubens, here putting on her suit, this again, this all happened about five hours ago. at the integration and clothing facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome which is in building 254, so on the crew's first stop after leaving the cosmonaut hotel, they went through a series of checks here to make sure these suits They didn't leak and were ready to serve you during lunch today and take a few minutes to rest a little before launch, which is now only 34 minutes away again.

This video was recorded before and during the day as the crew made their final preparations once again. This is a view. by Kate Rubins getting her spacesuit ready to go, it's a long day for the crew with those with their wake-up call returning about 10 hours and 45 minutes before launch and plenty of time to finish once they launch to reach the station international space, although this trip will be shorter than any previous trip Soyuz crews have taken, we will make this trip in just two orbits instead of the usual four or even more. um, wow, those leak checks that happened.

Earlier today, the crews here also, in real time, did some final leak checks and that actually completed, just momentarily, a moment ago, all the good readings from those leak checks, so they should be ready to take off. on time at 12:45 am. tonight in the center, you know, President, continue watching the video of today's previous preparations. This again was the crew's first stop after they left the cosmonaut hotel this morning. backup crew members and just on the other side of the glass out of sight here a number of vips and guests were watching again a smaller group than usual but still a good amount of people interested in its launch all behind glass that helps protect.

Crew members, that glass is always there, but it's especially important right now with the restrictions protecting them before heading to the international space station. They have been monitored very, very strictly throughout. Good morning, happy birthday Kate, we have a great space station. That's waiting for the three years to arrive and we hope to see them in orbit with the three of you. Congratulations to space station program manager Joe Maltobano for his wishes for the crew. We will be happy to see you in a few hours, just a little. More than three hours after lunch when you arrive at the station have a good trip and an excellent arrival at the station.

It is an honor to continue this tradition. You started it, Mr. Kurikaliov, and we will continue it 20 years later. Thank you. Well, get to work. Thank you. You followed those leak checks and some final good wishes from those managers and NASA and Rose Cosmos who were observing the procedures, again continued to uphold tradition and left site 254, integration building towards the Russian managers. to declare for the final time that they are ready for launch, this will take place around 8:59 p.m. CT on Tuesday 4:59 a.m. m. on Wednesday in Baikonur and here you can see them boarding their bus again, this time to travel to launch pad 31. good luck to everyone, everything will be great, you will be amazing, last goodbye also to their backup team, now relieved of their duty, which was a mark vanda high, which kate rubins was saying goodbye there, the trip to the platform took approximately 50 minutes and They arrived at 10:14 p.m.

Central Time or 8:14 a.m. m. on Wednesday in Baikonur, okay, please look here and of course this would not be the time to trip and fall, and those so-called space suits are not the easiest thing to walk in, so they help them carefully until they reach their rocket, where they climb a few stairs to say goodbye to well-wishers before boarding an elevator to climb to the top of their Soyuz rocket, is where they board their spacecraft. which they have been inside for the last two hours and Kate Rubins is waving goodbye before entering her Soyuz spacecraft preparing for the launch that is now only 26 minutes away, here we go and we come back now with a view Live shot of the crew inside their Soyuz MS-17 ready for launch.

You can see here, in the bottom corner or in the bottom left corner, Sergey Rizhikov, who is the commander of the Soyuz on its trip to the international space station, and in the top right. The right side of the screen, Sergey Kudsperchkov, out of view, here's Kate Rubins, who is on the other side of Rizhikov, just out of view, and there we are looking at astronaut Kate Rubens and her seat to the right of Sergey Rizhikov saluting. to the audience and ready for launch now in 24 minutes and 14 seconds safe travel, it has been a pleasure working with you and another live view of the soyuz ms-17 at the launch pad in baikonur, liftoff scheduled for 12 a.m. central time 10 45 a.m. in baikonur on top of the rocket and inside the soyuz spacecraft as we just saw are kate rubens sergey rizhikov and sergey kuzkov now just three 23 minutes away from launch the entire soyuz spacecraft is 24.5 feet long with a total volume of 177 cubic feet and Composed of three modules, the descent module located in the center of the Soyuz vehicle contains custom seating for crew members during launch entry and landing and contains all the controls and displays necessary for flight.

It also houses life support systems, batteries for re-entry. and the landing and soft-landing parachute and rocket engines that decelerate the soyuz just before touchdown when a spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan. There are eight hydrogen peroxide thrusters located in the module that are used to control the orientation or attitude of the spacecraft during descent until parachute deployment. The descent module also contains a guidance, navigation and control system that is used to maneuver the vehicle during the descent phase of the mission. This descent module is 7.3 feet long with a diameter of 7.1 feet and a habitable volume of 124 cubic feet.

It is the only part of the Soyuz that survives the return to Earth. The orbital module at the top measures 9.8 feet long. It connects to the descent module through a pressurized hatch. This is where the crew has a small amount of space. to move after launch during flight to the space station has a docking mechanism hatch and rendezvous antennas located at the front end the docking mechanism is used to dock with the space station and the hatch allows entry to the orbiting complex The rendezvous antennas are used by the automated docking system which uses radar to maneuver towards the docking station.

There is also a forward-facing window on the module that the crew can use to take manual measurements of distance and approach speed with a laser rangefinder in case of rendezvous radar system failure the propulsion module houses the oxygen storage tanks the main engine and attitude control thrusters, the avionics and communication and control equipment, the propulsion part of this module handles all orbital maneuvers, including those necessary for rendezvous with the space station and orbit ignition at the end of the spacecraft's mission before they are deployed. The solar panels fold against the body of the propulsion module which, along with the orbital module, separates from the descent module after the orbit burns up.

The solar panels span nearly 35 feet. The entire spacecraft serves not only as a crew transport vehicle to and from the space station. but also as an emergency return vehicle in the unlikely event that the crew needs to leave the station unexpectedly. Only one, here now, is from Sebastian asking if astronaut Kate Rubins can speak Russian and she can. All astronauts going to the international space station must speak. Both English and Russian, so Kate Rubens can speak Russian and Sergey Rizhikov and Sergey Kuzkov can also speak English. You know people vary in how comfortable they are with the language, but at least they have a basic grasp, that's it.

However, I haveheard a challenge particularly for our international partners from Japan and Canada and not so much from Canada since they speak English to begin with, but from European countries who may not speak English as a foreign language because they learn Russian through English. they are learning a foreign language while speaking a foreign language and now we have another question from Brandon, who asks what role NASA mission control plays in the launch from Baikonur. The team here in the flight control room at Houston Mission Control is monitoring events. is happening at Baikonur, but they don't have much to do with the actual launch and emphasize what they are working on, however, is making sure the international space station is ready for the Soyuz to dock later tonight, as coupling is yet to come. at 3:52 a.m. central time, so it will be a particularly short period of time to be ready once the launch is complete, but everything is looking good on this end.

They have also been working ahead of time to make sure that when the soyuz arrives, the rosvett The docking port and the crew on board will be ready to receive you, oh oh, one more question from social media, although you can still come back using the question to NASA. This one comes from asking if astronauts have a practice for staying mentally healthy and maintaining their cognitive functions in space, which is a very important piece of the puzzle for astronauts working aboard the international space station. One of the things that is part of astronaut training once they get to NASA and become astronauts is what we call expeditionary skills and that is making sure that you are a good team member, that you are serving your team well. and that can mean taking care of yourself, taking care of your teammates, and also being a leader or follower as the situation requires. a lot of their training along with more practical things like international space station systems and spacewalk training, but it is an important part of the training, again, you can submit those questions using the hashtag, ask nasa on the networks social, we will try to take a few more of the course of the night oh oh sir oh oh foreigner you are 10 minutes those who have just joined us you are watching a live view of the soyuz ms-17 which currently has kate rubins sergey rizhikov and sergey kuzkov waiting for his launch to the international space station, there are only 14 minutes left until today's liftoff, which is scheduled for 12:45 a.m.

Central time, 10:45 a.m. m. in Baikonur, four degree refrigerator temperature test and we are 13 minutes away from launch now and we have some infrared for you now. The booster that will take the crew into space today, the Soyuz rocket measures 162 feet tall, weighs about 640,000 pounds and consists of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft inside a protective cover on top and the Soyuz 2.1a booster. of three stages beneath the spacecraft. on its booster and the three main stages came together on Saturday, just 24 hours later, on Sunday, the Soyuz rocket began its journey towards the launch pad right at 7 am Baikonur time, and arrived less than two hours later, where it was raised to an upright position for The final pre-launch preparations are now ready for lunch with its three crew members aboard the Soyuz spacecraft sits high above the three-stage Soyuz booster that uses kerosene and liquid oxygen as propellant.

The first stage has four liquid engines strapped to the side of each of the core vehicles will burn for one minute and 58 seconds before falling. The center engine of the first stage also serves as the second stage and continues to burn until 4 minutes and 57 seconds into the flight. The third stage has a single engine that will ignite before the separation of the second stage, helping to safely move it away, it will burn during the 8 minutes and 46 seconds of the flight at which time the Soyuz spacecraft will separate from the third stage after having reached its preliminary orbit.

I'm back now with a live view of the Soyuz on the pad at Baikonur, just 12 minutes away from today's scheduled 12:45 a.m. liftoff. central 10 45 in Baikonur. I'm getting a lot of questions on social media about the music we're into. When we hear that it is played for the benefit of the team and it is chosen by the team, we have information about which member of the team chose which particular songs they can listen to, but it is possible that any of them could have some of the other things that the team you can choose is the zero gravity indicator that you take into space for this mission.

The zero-gravity indicator used by the crew is a small woven cosmonaut that was made by Sergey Koons Perchkov's wife and will hang from the ceiling of the Soyuz. so that they can know when it no longer hangs and begins to float that they have successfully docked into microgravity and are in space each crew can choose a different talisman to fulfill that purpose their head another milestone to keep in mind today before they enter The last few minutes of the countdown is that it is astronaut Kate Rubin's birthday, she will be launching with an extremely large birthday candle on her way to the international space station and having an extra reason to celebrate today is to regain some views of the The crew inside the Soyuz is now less than 10 minutes away from today's launch.

This is Kate Rubens again celebrating her birthday today with a launch to the international space station. We will be representatives from NASA and Risk Cosmos who are observing a short distance from the launch pad. in baikonur for an update on activities there we will now go to nasa public affairs officer rob davies randy there has been a very different atmosphere at the baikonur cosmodrome than we are normally accustomed to in the run-up to launch So many global events have been affected by the Covet 19 pandemic and this release is no different. Strict precautions have been taken to ensure the crew remains isolated from all but essential personnel, and face masks and social distancing are the name of the game here for everyone and everyone. very close to the Russian and American crew or support teams, there are no family members attending the launch or VIPs for this last raw launch of the year.

Kate Rubins and her crewmates are ready for a super-fast express trip to the space station the first two. Orbit scheme for the crew after five two-orbit tests with progress cargo ships. Ironically, it will take us about an hour to return to Baikonur City from our launch complex observation site at Site-31. It will only take three hours for Rubens and her crewmates to arrive at the international space station, and even with only a fraction of the people who normally attend here, the excitement is as palpable as ever as we get closer to launch. That's all from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Now back to you at mission control. in houston thanks rob we are now at point t-minus seven minutes pre-launch operations are complete at this point in the countdown the soyuz first and second stage engines are ready for launch and telemetry has been received from the rocket indicating that all primary and backup systems are configured to support liftoff at the time of launch at six minutes and 40 seconds. Now the international space station will fly 259 miles above northwest of Ubex, Uzbekistan, on the border of Kazakhstan, 339 miles ahead of Soyuz when it departs from launch. platform the launch is precisely scheduled for the moment when the earth's rotation will place the Baikonur cosmodrome in the plane of the space station's orbit six minutes remain until launch at this point the launch key has been inserted into the launch bunker which is an actual key that changes the launch sequence to automatic mode the ground measurement system is activated by executing a command five minutes until the onboard launch systems have switched to onboard control the cockpit displays commander and controls have been activated and the crew members close their helmets and put on the oxygen suit four minutes and counting now until the cade circuit reuben kudz skirchkov and sergey rizhikov head to the international space station at this point The fuel lines and other elements of the rocket engines are being purged with nitrogen to protect against fire by removing fuel vapors and oxidizer three minutes and counting now today's tool takes off at 12 45 a.m. central time the vehicle it's finished.

The boosters and fuel tanks are now being pressurized for flight, optimizing fuel flow and helping to add structural support to the rocket. What's wrong with my watch? Pressurization two minutes. on the left before takeoff today foreigner i'm back with an inside view looking at sergey rizhikov and sergey kuzkov one minute and 30 seconds left for takeoff ground booster feed has ended one minute left soyuz is now on internal power as we speak space stations flying directly over the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the launch pad at the time of launch, the station will be 339 miles above the Soyuz when it leaves the pad, there is the first umbilical tower that separates from the booster launch , the second umbilical now separating eight seven six five four three two one and liftoff kate rubin sergey rizhikov and sergey kuzkov now en route to the international space station the latest in a chain spanning nearly 20 years of continuous human presence in space 10 seconds the rocket parameters are nominal 20 seconds the first and second stage boosters are running nominally listening to the first good reports of good first stage performance, everything that seems nominal soyuz is currently delivering 930,000 pounds of thrust from its four boosters and a single engine from that first stage, it is 68 feet long and 24 feet in diameter and liquid bird fuel for the first two minutes and six seconds of flight 50 seconds the pressure in the chambers is phenomenal everything is fine on board we feel good good reports from the crew also everything looks good for today's flight show him his role phenomenal rolling, y'all, which means normal, the spacecraft is exactly where it is expected to be at this point, the speed is 100 to 100 miles per hour, first stage of the soyuz, less than a minute left in the flight now everything is good, we feel good, we feel the The first milestone we will be watching for here is the disposal of the escape tower, which will occur at the 1 minute 54 second mark, less than 10 seconds now and there is the separation of the four strap-on thrusters being jettisoned, these have completed their work. and are now falling at an altitude of 45 kilometers above the ground as the Soyuz continues its flight traveling at approximately 3,350 miles per hour powered by the second stage or core stage of the rocket.

The parameters of the rocket are nominal, although they still look good and are the next milestone. What we're looking for is the throwing drought discard at two minutes and 37 seconds and you see that throwing path discard. Now we're getting some views from the external camera of the rocket looking down at the bottom of this rocket and down to Earth. Below the solar panels waiting to be deployed once the spacecraft safely reaches orbit Soyuz traveling at a speed of 4 700 miles per hour at this point on board everything is fine, we feel good and we continue to hear good calls from the crew core stage functioning as expected.

The Soyuz stage is 56 feet long and 13 and a half feet in diameter with a single engine and four fuel chambers providing between 178,000 and 222,000 pounds of thrust at various points during its 3 minutes and 28 seconds of operation. We are anticipating the next separation, this stage will continue to burn until 4 minutes and 43 seconds. Soyuz uses what is called a hot stage technique, meaning the third stage ignites while the second is still burning. 230 seconds. Spacecraft stabilization is working well four minutes into Soyuz active. ms-17 now kate rubin sergey rizhikov and sergey kuzkov en route to the international space station after today's core launch at 12:45 am from the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan 250 seconds of gross tilt and rotation is nominal everything continues to go well on ascent to orbit We will be looking for a next cut in the second stage at the 4 minute and 45 second mark.

Within about 15 seconds everything still looks fine. Four minutes and 45 seconds into the third stage are lighting up. The second stage should be closed. We have confirmation. of the start of the second third stage thrusters and the deactivation of the capital thrusters of the secondstage, we feel good, everything is nominal on board, I understand that, as you heard, everything still looks good. The center booster separated at an altitude of 105 miles and with it. The Soyuz is now being powered by a single engine from its third stage, that engine provides sixty-seven thousand pounds of thrust and will burn for four minutes and two seconds.

The day's flight goes smoothly and all systems are nominally functional. The crew reports that they are feeling fine and continues. your way to the space station I'm bored everything is fine we feel great everything is fine on board there are about two minutes left before the crew is officially in space and in orbit the next milestone we will be watching for arrives at minute 8 and 40 seconds 46 second mark which is the third stage cut and separation copy everything is fine on board we feel good 100 seconds the stabilization of the vehicle is constant copy everything is fine on board the crews keep shouting that everything looks fine inside the soyuz rocket seeing A view of the cameras on the outside of the Soyuz here looking towards the bottom of the rocket and uh on the screen four so the solar panel that will be deployed once the crew safely reaches orbit is now seven minutes and a half on today's flight.

The speed of the Soyuz is 13,500 miles per hour, once this final third stage delivers the Soyuz to orbit and the module separates, a series of pre-programmed commands will be executed to prepare the Soyuz for orbital operations; those storm commands are called time tag commands. and allow many of the Soyuz systems to be activated automatically by onboard computers at precise times stored in the computers. There are about 45 seconds left before the crew is in orbit and safely in space. Everything still looks good for today's flight. The 500 second flight is nominal. Copy everything. okay on board we are waiting for separation everything is numb now prepare for separation the thrusters are off separation confirmed is confirmed and there you have this confirmation that the third stage was cut and separated as planned.

The single liquid fuel engine shut down and fell at an altitude of 126 miles above the Earth and there the Soyuz is now also seen to have been deployed, which is also a key milestone in ensuring that the Soyuz can be propelled on its journey to the international space station. divorce this is mcc moscow The spacecraft from this point will be monitored by the Russian mission control center outside Moscow. The call to the crew you are listening to now is a nominal copy. We are working on the video and we are also stopping. Take measurements for this current time. today's launch just 10 minutes ago, now at 12 45am. mct kate rubins sergey ryzikov and sergey kuz are now safely in orbit and on their way to the international space station after a flawless launch in eight and a half minutes of ascent to orbit.

I'll be working on some initial checks now, but everything looks good as they head into the first two rendezvous orbits for a human crew with the space station that are scheduled for 3:52 a.m. Central Time, when they will dock with the Rosvette module. on the Russian segment of the space station is on copy the second set of the course hardware is on copy and I heard there that the damn antenna that will be used to guide the Soyuz to its automated docking passage verifies that it is one of the key milestones which happens once the Soyuz reaches orbit.

We'll also be doing some leak and communication checks to make sure everything looks good. As the Soyuz heads on its way, we have confirmation that our mode operations are below 10 degrees. Copy waiting to be filled. out of form 0 3 are you ready to copy yes 17 decimal four sixteen decimal four three sixty eight twenty two decimal zero twenty one decimal eight twenty two thirty twenty four 24 19.3 25. 17.3 26. 33.67 thruster 878. We have copied the data from form 3. Let's check the configuration mcc um manifold yes, let's test the manual controls on 0 9 53 0 0. It is written in your divorce proceedings, how do you copy our Moscow followers?

We do not copy your manual mode after recording, we will go to kudo mode ok copy we have confirmation of the verification of the firstcopy of the heading set we are waiting for your confirmation copy in five minutes after the pressure checks the pressures are 8 11. 8.74 copy redux how to copy us now? we have a solar player we are completing the compass in 0.905 of their structure they were nominally feathered, the parameters are the nominal band is 51.6, they are going to loosen the shoulder straps to open their helmets and check the thermal sensors, how do they copy? Crews continue to review the checks that occur once the Soyuz reaches orbit.

It was launched again at 12:45 as planned and the launch went smoothly. I've been getting your questions using the hashtag Asknassa and we're going to take a couple before moving on to some replays of the pitch coming up next. one that comes from avia and asks how much g force the crew sees during their ascent into space. At launch, the crew experiences approximately 1.7 times the force of gravity and when the rocket's solid boosters separate approximately two minutes into flight, there will already be more than double the force of gravity during the last minute of ascent. , which is about seven and a half minutes to about eight and a half minutes when the main engines come on at the last time they experience about. three times the force of gravity, then you go from that straightened to zero once they reach zero gravity.

We also have another question, this one that comes to us about all the indicators, they are all nominal. Did you check this one we get from Kent asking whether or not the astronauts sleep during the flight or eat and because this is a very short flight they probably won't have time to take a nap, maybe they can have a snack because they've been sitting around waiting lunch for several hours, so that would be uh, one of the first things I could reach, but um, on some, some trips to the international space station can take a lot longer, I'm used to the trip would take a couple of days, um, are getting shorter and shorter for the Soyuz crew. members, but for example, the first Spacex dragon crew that launched earlier this year had about a day of time between their launch and their conversation on the international space station, so they had a little time to take a nap Quick and grab something. something to eat in a few minutes, we hope to have some additional views of the launch for you, which again took place at 12:45am.

CT at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the crew continues to perform their early checks now that they are safe. orbit and everything is going well so far they continue at that pace, they are scheduled to talk to the international space station at 3:52 a.m. CT today and here are the replays starting now, they come from different cameras than the ones we were able to see in real time. When the Soyuz MS-17 lifted off from Launch Pad 31, Launch Site 31 at the rear of the Northern Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:45 a.m. central time aboard kate rubins sergey kuzkov and sergey rizzikov now everyone on the way to the international space station first second watch there today's launch at 12 45 we'll have a total of five of these replays for you oh it's time , okay, so, um, so, let's get the material which was a series of replays of today's release at 12 45 AM central time.

The crew aboard NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kudskrichkov and Soyuz Commander Sergey Rizhikov are now en route to the International Space Station and are scheduled to conduct the first two rendezvous orbits for a Soyuz with crew on board approaching at 3:52 a.m. Central time, so you won't want to be paying attention to NASA television. We're going to take a short break now that the crew is safely in orbit, but we'll be back at 3am. CT for our docking coverage again, docking is scheduled for 3:52 AM. m., after which we will take a short break while we show you some post-launch video files and then return for opening the hatches coverage at 5 a.m. m. from today.

Today's activities will end at 5:45 a.m. m. am when the hatch opens and the international space station can welcome its three new crew members and then we'll end the day with a video archive of it all at 8 am, that's all that will appear here on nasa tv, so stay with us tonight and get ready to welcome the new crew members to the international space station. Houston mission control here, so