Russia launches manned mission to ISS (Lead)
December 21st, 2011 - 10:18 pm ICT by IANSMoscow, Dec 21 (IANS) Russia Wednesday launched a manned mission to the International Space Sation (ISS) from its Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft carrying three astronauts blasted off at 1316 GMT, the Roscosmos space agency said.
The spacecraft is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 1522 GMT Friday, Xinhua reported.
The crew to the ISS includes Oleg Kononenko from Russia, Andre Kuipers from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Donald Pettit from NASA.
The trio will join Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoli Ivanishin from Russia and Daniel Burbank from NASA at the ISS and spend some 147 days in space.
According to Roscosmos, the enlarged ISS crew would conduct some 70 experiments and a space walk Feb 14.
- Russia's manned spacecraft docks with ISS - Dec 24, 2011
- Three ISS crew to return to earth - Mar 29, 2012
- Russian cosmonauts conduct space walk - Feb 17, 2012
- Space station crew lands in Kazakhstan - Apr 27, 2012
- Russia launches manned spacecraft to ISS - Nov 14, 2011
- Russian cosmonauts take a six-hour spacewalk - Feb 17, 2012
- New space station crew in orbit - May 15, 2012
- Russian space agency names next crew to ISS - Oct 25, 2011
- Astronauts rush to safety as space junk whizz by - Mar 25, 2012
- Space station crew land safely in Kazakhstan (Lead) - Nov 22, 2011
- Russian spacecraft undocks from ISS - Nov 22, 2011
- Russia launches space freighter - Oct 31, 2011
- ISS orbit raised by 1.8 km - Dec 01, 2011
- Russia launches manned spacecraft - Apr 05, 2011
- Orbiting cosmonauts vote in Russian polls - Mar 05, 2012
Tags: anatoli, andre kuipers, astronauts, baikonur space, days in space, european space agency, feb 14, gmt, international space, iss crew, moscow, nasa, oleg, pettit, russia, soyuz tma, space centre, space walk, spacecraft, xinhua