Astronauts from Russia, the US and Japan dock at the International Space Station

Less than six hours after take-off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome, the three astronauts Kjell Lindgren from the US, Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Kononenko of Russia have safely arrived at the International Space Station. For Kjell Lindgren and Kimiya Yui, it is their first time in orbit. The Japanese astronaut had brought along some sushi as a treat for the others.
This has been reported in bbc.com dated 23 July 2015.

Since the US has already retired its Space Shuttle operation in 2011, the only option for manned flights to the ISS is by use of Russia's ageing Soviet space technology. This flight was to have taken place earlier but had to be postponed due to failure of the launch of the cargo rocket.
The three astronauts were supposed to have taken off in May but Moscow had to delay the flight after the 28 April crash. That was when an unmanned Soyuz cargo rocket failed to reach the station and burned up in the atmosphere before it crashed back to Earth.
The International Space Station is located about 400-Km above planet Earth.
The new team has joined up with the existing ISS crew of Russians Gennady Padalka, Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly from the US to make up the 6-member team.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Russian Soyuz-U blasts off with Progress M-28M ship carrying supplies to ISS

#InternationalSpaceStation #Soyuzrocket #MikhailKornienko #ScottKelly Recently, the SpaceX Dragon space capsule exploded after take-off and many supplies meant for the ISS was destroyed. The International Space Station has enough supplies until October, but there is an urgent need for ferrying of the crew.
Therefore, an unmanned cargo ship has taken off from Kazakhstan and is on its way to the International Space Station where the crew comprising cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly are waiting. This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 3 July 2015.

The Russian Progress M-28M ship has been now placed safely into a designated orbit, en-route to the station and it is due to dock with the Russian-manned station on Sunday. The ship is carrying 2.4 metric tons of fuel, oxygen, water, food and other supplies for the crew.
There has been a number of failed attempts in the recent past - the previous Progress launch in April, followed by a US supply mission attempt last Sunday when the rocket broke apart shortly after lift-off and a launch pad failure last October when another supply-carrying cargo failed at the launch pad.
Hence there is a need to keep standby options ready.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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#InternationalSpaceStation #Soyuzspacecraft #NASA #redplanet On 27 March, a team of three would fly to the International Space Station and two of them will not return soon – they would remain on the ISS so that their fitness can be evaluated by specialists in preparation for sending humans to distant planets like Mars.
This has been reported in space.com dated 23 March 2015.

The three are American astronaut Scott Kelly of NASA and two cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of Russia – they will blast off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The first two namely Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko would stay on for a whole year and pave the way for future missions of longer durations. It will be the first time that an American would spend a continuous year in space.
Their stay in the ISS for a whole year would help to have a better understanding of how the human body would react and adapt to the harsh environment of space. Based on the findings, suitable decisions can be taken to work out how best to reduce the risks on future long-duration missions to some asteroid and, eventually, the Red Planet Mars.

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