Video credit: NASA TV
A three-person crew heading for the International Space Station took off Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and arrived in orbit around nine minutes later, beginning a two-day pursuit of the research outpost.
A camera mounted outside the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft provided live views of the rocket’s ascent into orbit, and it showed the Soyuz launcher’s third stage jettisoning from the capsule, venting gas to steer clear of the crew’s spaceship.
The Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft extended its power-generating solar panels moments later.
The crew, led by Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, lifted off at 1112:39 GMT (7:12:39 a.m. EDT; 5:12:39 p.m. Baikonur time). Prokopyev, a rookie space flier, was blanked in the Soyuz left-hand seat by European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, veteran of a previous space station expedition in 2014, and NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, also making her first trip into orbit.
The trio is set to dock with the International Space Station’s Rassvet module Friday.
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