posted 12-01-2018 09:54 AM               

Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft, crew poised for launch

Soyuz MS-11 commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, together with flight engineers Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, are set to launch to the International Space Station on Monday (Dec. 3) at 5:31 a.m. CST (1131 GMT; 5:31 p.m. local) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov

They will dock the Soyuz to the space station's Poisk module at 11:35 a.m. CST (1735 GMT) the same day, after a four-orbit rendezvous.

About two hours later, the hatches between the Soyuz and the space station will open and Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques will be greeted by Expedition 57 commander Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, both flight engineers.

Kononenko, McClain and Saint-Jacques will stay on the space station through June.

On Saturday (Dec. 1), the Soyuz-FG rocket topped with the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft was rolled out to the pad by train and erected into position.

Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

posted 12-03-2018 05:41 AM               

Soyuz MS-11 crew launch to space station, two months after failed flight

A cosmonaut and two astronauts bound for the International Space Station made it safely into Earth orbit on Monday (Dec. 3), two months after another crew suffered an in-flight abort attempting to do the same.

Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko of Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, astronaut Anne McClain of NASA and astronaut David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) lifted off aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:31 a.m. CST (1131 GMT or 5:31 p.m. local Kazakh time).

posted 12-03-2018 11:34 AM               

Soyuz MS-11 arrives at space station

Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques arrived at the International Space Station Monday (Dec. 3), with the autonomous docking of Soyuz MS-11 to the Poisk module at 11:33 a.m. CST (1733 GMT).

Following standard pressurization checks, the hatches between the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft and the space station will be opened.

posted 06-24-2019 09:48 PM               

Soyuz MS-11 returns station crew to Earth after 204 days in space

A Russian cosmonaut and astronauts from the United States and Canada have returned to Earth after spending more than 200 days on board the International Space Station.

Oleg Kononenko with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Anne McClain of NASA and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques landed aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft on Monday (June 24). Lowered by parachute and slowed by braking thrusters, the capsule touched down southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 10:47 p.m. EDT (0247 GMT or 8:47 a.m. local time on June 25).