BAIKONUR COSMODROME, KAZAHKSTAN - Three new residents blasted off for the space station this evening and headed for a rendezvous with the other half of the Expedition 24 crew already working aboard the complex. The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft lifted off on time at 5:35 p.m. EDT from Baikonur Cosmodrome on the steppes of Kazahkstan and, after nine minutes of a picture-perfect ascent settled into preliminary orbit as the crew set about preparing for docking with the station on June 17 for a six-month stay on the orbiting laboratory.
(Image Right: Soyuz blasts off. Credit: NASA) LARGE HIGH-QUALITY ALL-ACCESS MEMBER VIDEO DOWNLOADS WATCH A REPLAY OF NASA TV SOYUZ LAUNCH COVERAGE • DOWNLOAD SOYUZ TMA-19 LAUNCH DAY HIGHLIGHTS • DOWNLOAD SOYUZ LAUNCH REPLAYS • DOWNLOAD POSTLAUNCH INTERVIEW WITH BILL GERSTENMAIER • DOWNLOAD PRELAUNCH ACTIVITIES AND FINAL CREW PRESS CONFERENCE • DOWNLOAD PRELAUNCH ACTIVITIES AND STATE COMMISSION MEETING • DOWNLOAD PRELAUNCH VIDEO FILE • DOWNLOAD EXPEDITION 24 CREW BACKGROUND • DOWNLOAD SOYUZ MATING AND ROLLOUT TO THE LAUNCH PAD • DOWNLOAD JUNE 15 ISS UPDATE • DOWNLOAD JUNE 16 ISS UPDATE • DOWNLOAD EXPEDITION 24 IN-FLIGHT MEDIA INTERVIEWS JUNE 2 • DOWNLOAD EXPEDITION 24/25 PRELAUNCH ACTIVITIES AND PRESS CONFERENCE • DOWNLOAD JUNE 2 ISS UPDATE • DOWNLOAD "I'd like to congratulate the crew on being ready and completing their training," NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operation Bill Gerstenmaier told the crew shortly before the astronauts headed to the launch pad. "That's a tremendous accomplishment. The teams in Houston, Canada and Japan are all ready to support your efforts. Have a good time on station, we look forward to your activities and work. As the space station reaches assembly complete and transitions to full-scale science operations, Gerstenmaier asked the astronauts to begin thinking about the post-shuttle futrure of exploration for NASA and that station. "And I have a special request for you, to think about how station can be used for exploration activities, can be a stepping stone to things beyond," Gerstenmaier said. "So in addition to your normal tasks and things to which you were trained, think about how station can be used for the future and as a stepping stone to new and bigger things." As the launch of the Soyuz TMA-19 lit up the pre-dawn skies around the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronauts Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin began the two-day journey to catch up with the space station currently orbiting 220 statute miles above the Earth. After reaching orbit, the spacecraft began the process of catching up to the station, executing trajectory course-correction burns. On Wednesday, the crew tested the docking systems of the Soyuz TMA-19 to prepare for docking to the aft port of the station's Zvezda service module at 6:25 p.m. EDT Thursday. They will join Expedition 24 crewmates Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut, and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, the station commander, and Mikhail Kornienko aboard the orbiting laboratory. The station's newest flight engineers will begin a five-and-a-half month tour of duty after docking with the station's Zvezda service module at 6:25 p.m. Thursday. Fellow Expedition 24 crewmates Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson will welcome them aboard the orbiting complex when the hatches open around 9:25 p.m. During Expedition 24, the six-person crew will continue scientific research investigations and station maintenance activities. On June 28, Yurchikhin, Wheelock and Walker will climb back into their Soyuz spacecraft and move it to the newly-delivered Mini-Research Module-1, or Rassvet. On June 28, Yurchikhin, Wheelock and Walker will climb back into their Soyuz spacecraft and move it to the newly-delivered Mini-Research Module-1, or Rassvet. The mission also includes three spacewalks, one conducted by Russian cosmonauts Yurchikhin and Kornienko on July 26 and two by NASA astronauts Wheelock and Caldwell Dyson on Aug. 5 and 17. Skvortsov, Caldwell Dyson and Kornienko, who launched to the station on April 2, are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 24. Before departing, Skvortsov will hand over command of the station to Wheelock for Expedition 25, which begins when the Soyuz TMA-18 undocks Sept. 24. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka will join Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin in orbit in October to complete the Expedition 25 crew. They will blastoff in another Soyuz on October 8 and reach the station on the 10th. U.S. Army Col. Wheelock, 50, is making his second trip into space. As an STS-120 mission specialist aboard space shuttle Discovery in 2007, he traveled to the station and conducted three spacewalks. Walker, 45, is a graduate of Rice University and the first native Houstonian to be named an astronaut. This is her first spaceflight. Yurchikhin, 51, is making his third trip into space and his second long-duration stay aboard the station. He flew aboard space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-112 mission to the station in October 2002. He also spent six months aboard the station in 2007 as commander of Expedition 15. Meanwhile aboard the station, the crew focused on maintenance and science experiment activities Wednesday while awaiting the arrival of their new crewmates. Skvortsov and Kornienko conducted thermal loop maintenance in the Russian segment of the station and continued outfitting the Rassvet module. Kornienko also worked with the Rusalka experiment that studies methane and carbon dioxide content in the Earth's atmosphere. Caldwell Dyson replaced a pump in the Oxygen Generation Assembly, but its reactivation is not scheduled until Friday to clear the way for the docking of the Soyuz TMA-19. She also worked with the Reaction Self Test experiment that helps monitor the daily effects of living in space. (Credit: NASA and The Spacearium)
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