A Soyuz rocket lifts off bound for International Space Station at 2:20 am on November 18, 2016, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It carries 3 crews from the United States, Russia, and France.
NASA Latest News: Rocket With 3 Crew Bounds For ISS
San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz MS-03 space ship blasts off to International Space Station (ISS) carrying 3 crew members. The crew includes 56-year-old veteran United States astronaut Peggy Whitson, 45-year-old Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and 38-year-old French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.
The three space travelers aboard Soyuz spacecraft head off to the International Space Station at 2:20 am Friday (2020 GMT, 3:20 p.m. EST Thursday) on November 18, 2016, from a Russia-leased facility in Kazakhstan. Eight minutes after the launch, the crew went into orbit. They will now travel for two days then chase after and dock at the International Space Station. Docking of the Soyuz Spacecraft to the International Space Station is scheduled at 5:01 p.m. EST (2201 GMT) on November 19. You can watch the docking at NASA TV.
Soyuz Rocket Carries Oldest Woman And First French In Space
According to Space, the three space travelers aboard Soyuz MS-03 space capsule atop the Soyuz-FG rocket include Commander Oleg Novitskiy. It also includes the first French astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, to live in the International Space Station.
One of the crew members is the US astronaut Peggy Whitson who will celebrate her 57th birthday in February 2017. This makes her the oldest woman in space. With the recent launch, this is already her third space station mission as a biochemist. For the record, Peggy Whitson has already spent 377 days in space and performed multiple spacewalks. The 6-month mission will lead Peggy Whitson to have a total of 534 days in space.
NASA Latest News: Whitson Will Soon Command ISS
NASA Whitson, Novitskiy, and Pesquet will soon join an American and two Russians at the International Space Station who have already worked at the station since October. They are NASA astronaut and ISS commander Shane Kimbrough and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov. The existing crew will head back to Earth on February and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will command the ISS.
