Thu, Dec 20, 2012
America, Russia, Canada Represented Aboard The Soyuz Spacecraft
With temperatures well below freezing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Tom Marshburn of NASA, Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency launched Wednesday to the International Space Station at 0712 EST (1812 Baikonur time).
The trio will dock its Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft to the Rassvet module on the Russian segment of the space station at 0812 EST Friday, Dec. 21. About three hours later, hatches between the Soyuz and the orbiting laboratory will open. Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will be greeted by space station Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin of Roscosmos, who have been in orbit since late-October.
Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will remain aboard the station until May 2013. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will return to Earth on March 15, when Hadfield will become the first Canadian commander of the space station.
The focus of Expedition 34 is scientific research, with the astronauts serving as subjects for human physiology tests, including examinations of astronaut bone loss. The crew also is conducting a wide range of physical science, Earth observation, human research and technology demonstration investigations. Experiments will investigate how fire behaves in space, which could help improve engine fuel efficiency and fire suppression methods in space and on Earth. Other research will look at fluids that change physical properties in the presence of a magnet, which could improve bridge and building designs to better withstand earthquakes. With the help of cameras set up by the crew, students on Earth are capturing photos of our planet.
(Expedition 34 Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), top, NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn and Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko. Photo provided by NASA)
More News
"As previously announced on February 29th, our IM-1 mission ended seven days after landing, as Odysseus' mission was not intended to survive the harsh temperatures of the lunar nig>[...]
Marker Beacon An electronic navigation facility transmitting a 75 MHz vertical fan or boneshaped radiation pattern. Marker beacons are identified by their modulation frequency and >[...]
Have A Story That NEEDS To Be Featured On Aero-News? Here’s How To Submit A Story To Our Team Some of the greatest new stories ANN has ever covered have been submitted by our>[...]
Also: Moron With A Laser, EAA Aviation Museum, FAA v Santa Monica Propeller Service, Frontier MEC Lauds FO Boom Supersonic has confirmed details surrounding the successful first te>[...]
We're Everywhere... Thanks To You! Even with the vast resources and incredibly far-reaching scope of the Aero-News Network, every now and then a story that should be reported on sl>[...]