The Russian Soyuz MS-03 crew transport spacecraft is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with three passengers on a two-day trek to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russia’s Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency will join the station’s existing three-person Expedition 50 crew.
Mission Reports
Space station crewmen head off on 342-day mission
A workhorse Soyuz booster thundered to life and climbed into a dark Kazakh sky Friday, carrying NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko on a four-orbit voyage to the International Space Station to kick off a marathon 342-day mission, the longest flight ever attempted by an American.
