U.S.-Russian Crew Lifts Off for Yearlong Space Station Mission
Source: NBC NEWS
By Alan Boyle
Three spacefliers lifted off in a Russian Soyuz capsule on Friday, heading to the International Space Station for an orbital stay that will set two records.
Launch from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan came at 3:42 p.m. ET (1:42 a.m. local time Saturday), with live video coverage from NASA. The Soyuz is scheduled to dock with the station less than six hours after launch, at 9:36 p.m. ET.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend almost a year in orbit, which in Kelly's case will best the U.S. record for longest-duration spaceflight by more than 100 days. The men will undergo intense medical monitoring for studies aimed at determining how ultra-long-term spaceflight affects the human body.
Russian cosmonauts have been in space continuously for as long as 437 days, so Kelly and Kornienko won't set a world record. But the third Soyuz crew member, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, has his own record to set. If he stays in orbit until his scheduled return in October, he'll chalk up an unprecedented cumulative total of nearly 900 days in space.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/u-s-russian-crew-lifts-yearlong-space-station-mission-n331521
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