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Follow the Expedition 12 crew's launch to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft. Reload this page for the latest.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2005

A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome late Friday, boosting a fresh two-man crew - and history's third space tourist - into orbit for an Oct. 3 rendezvous and docking with the international space station. Read our launch story.

Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: LAUNCH OF EXPEDITION 12! PLAY | ASCENT TO ORBIT
VIDEO: TRACKING CAMERA 1 | 2
VIDEO: CROWD AT PAD WELCOMES THE CREW PLAY
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS SUITUP BUILDING FOR LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH MORNING TRADITIONS AT CREW QUARTERS PLAY

VIDEO: THE SOYUZ ROCKET IS ROLLED TO LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: ROCKET IS ERECTED ON PAD PLAY

VIDEO: PRE-LAUNCH TRAINING AND EXERCISE FOR CREW PLAY
VIDEO: CREWMEMBERS TOUR THE LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH COMMANDER MCARTHUR PLAY
VIDEO: CREW INSPECTS SOYUZ TMA-7 CAPSULE PLAY

VIDEO: OVERVIEW OF EXPEDITION 12 MISSION PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT MISSION BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
AUDIO: LISTEN TO THE BRIEFING FOR IPOD
VIDEO: CREW'S PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: TRAINING OF CREW IN HOUSTON PLAY
VIDEO: U.S. SPACEWALK TRAINING PLAY
VIDEO: GREG OLSEN TRAINING ON NASA SYSTEMS PLAY
MORE: EXPEDITION 12 VIDEO INDEX
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0405 GMT (12:05 a.m. EDT)

Soyuz commander Valery Tokarev says the capsule's separation from the rocket was nominal. The craft is beginning its sequence to deploy power-generating solar arrays, as well as antennas for navigational and communication systems.

0403 GMT (12:03 a.m. EDT)

T+plus 8 minutes, 55 seconds. CAPSULE SEPARATION! The Soyuz spacecraft is flying free after separation from the spent third stage for the journey to the International Space Station.

0403 GMT (12:03 a.m. EDT)

T+plus 8 minutes, 50 seconds. The third stage engine cutoff has occurred.

0402 GMT (12:02 a.m. EDT)

T+plus 7 minutes, 30 seconds. Soyuz is 124 miles in altitude and racing to achieve orbital velocity.

0401 GMT (12:01 a.m. EDT)

T+plus 7 minutes. Crew says everything is fine aboard the Soyuz.

0400 GMT (12:00 a.m. EDT)

T+plus 6 minutes. Third stage engine performance is reported normal.

0359 GMT (11:59 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T+plus 5 minutes. The second stage of the Soyuz rocket has shut down and separated. The third stage will complete the job of injecting the Soyuz capsule into Earth orbit.

0359 GMT (11:59 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T+plus 4 minutes, 30 seconds. The second stage continues to fire.

0358 GMT (11:58 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T+plus 3 minutes, 30 seconds. A good flight is being reported from mission control.

0357 GMT (11:57 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T+plus 3 minutes. The safety escape tower and launch shroud have been jettisoned from the atop the Soyuz capsule.

0357 GMT (11:57 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T+plus 2 minutes, 15 seconds. The four strap-on boosters of the first stage have separated as planned. The second stage core motor continues to fire.

0355 GMT (11:55 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T+plus 60 seconds. The crew reports it is doing well as the rocket accelerates into a clear morning sky.

0355 GMT (11:55 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T+plus 30 seconds. The Russian Soyuz is maneuvering to the proper heading. All engines are up and running.

0354:53 GMT (11:54:53 p.m. EDT Fri.)

LIFTOFF! Liftoff of the Soyuz rocket carrying the next joint Russian-American crew to the International Space Station!

0354 GMT (11:54 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 40 seconds. The first umbilical arm has separated from Soyuz. The second will retract in the next few seconds.

0353:53 GMT (11:53:53 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 1 minute and counting. Launch sequence start.

0353:23 GMT (11:53:23 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 90 seconds. The International Space Station is flying 230 miles above the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Chile. Launch is timed to put Soyuz on a trajectory to reach the outpost Monday morning, about 49.5 hours from now.

0352:53 GMT (11:52:53 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 2 minutes and counting. Rocket propellant tank pressurization is underway. The vehicle's onboard measurement system is activated. Oxidizer and fuel drain and safety valves of launch vehicle have been closed.

0351:53 GMT (11:51:53 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 3 minutes and counting. The nitrogen purge of the combustion chambers of side and central engine pods of the rocket has started.

0350:53 GMT (11:50:53 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 4 minutes and counting. The range at Baikonur is being verified clear for launch. The launch key has been inserted in the bunker for liftoff.

0349:53 GMT (11:49:53 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 5 minutes and counting. Systems of the Soyuz have switched to onboard control, the ground measurement system and the Soyuz commander's controls are being activated. Also, the crew has switched to suit air by closing their helmets.

0348:53 GMT (11:48:53 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 6 minutes and counting. The automatic program for final launch operations is being activated.

0344 GMT (11:44 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 10 minutes and counting. The crew inside the Soyuz capsule are activating recorders to collect data during launch.

0340 GMT (11:40 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 14 minutes and counting. The Soyuz telemetry systems are being activated. They will relay real-time data back to Earth during today's launch.

0337 GMT (11:37 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 17 minutes and counting. Realignment of the Soyuz rocket's trajectory control system has been completed and checks of internal batteries have been performed. The Soyuz telemetry system will soon be activated and monitoring of Soyuz's thermal control system also will begin.

0329 GMT (11:29 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 25 minutes and counting. The three-stage rocket will place the Soyuz spacecraft into an initial orbit around Earth featuring a high point of 143 miles and low point of 118 miles, beginning the two-day trek to the International Space Station. Soyuz will perform a series of engine firings this weekend to adjust its orbit for the station rendezvous. Docking occurs around 1:40 a.m. EDT on Monday.

0324 GMT (11:24 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 30 minutes and counting. The emergency escape system is being armed. The system would be employed if a major malfunction occurs, propelling the Soyuz capsule off the top of the rocket to safety.

0315 GMT (11:15 p.m. EDT Fri.)

The two-piece service structure that has enclosed the Soyuz rocket at the launch pad during its stay will be retracted. The towers will be rotating to a horizontal position. Several other umbilical arms connecting the rocket to the ground will be retracted at various times later in the countdown.

Meanwhile, leak checks of the crew's launch and entry spacesuits are scheduled to be underway at this time.

0304 GMT (11:04 p.m. EDT Fri.)

T-minus 50 minutes and counting. It is a beautifully clear morning at the launch site.

0245 GMT (10:45 p.m. EDT Fri.)

The Soyuz rocket is fueled, the three-man crew is strapped aboard the spacecraft and the countdown is proceeding for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome a few seconds before 11:55 p.m. EDT.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2005
2130 GMT (5:30 p.m. EDT)

Here is an overview the key events in the countdown, as provided by NASA:

• T- 6:00:00 Batteries are installed in the booster
  
  
• T- 5:30:00 State commission gives "go" to take launch vehicle
  
  
• T- 5:15:00 Crew arrives at site 254
  
  
• T- 5:00:00 Tanking begins
  
  
• T- 4:20:00 Spacesuit donning
  
  
• T- 4:00:00 Booster is loaded with liquid oxygen
  
  
• T- 3:40:00 Crew meets delegations
  
  
• T- 3:10:00 Reports to the State commission
  
  
• T- 3:05:00 Transfer to the launch pad
  
  
• T- 3:00:00 Vehicle first and second stage oxidizer fueling complete
  
  
• T- 2:35:00 Crew arrives at launch vehicle
  
  
• T- 2:30:00 Crew ingress through orbital module side hatch
  
  
• T- 2:00:00 Crew in re-entry vehicle
  
  
• T- 1:45:00 Re-entry vehicle hardware tested; suits are ventilated
  
  
• T- 1:30:00 Launch command monitoring and supply unit prepared;
  -- Orbital compartment hatch tested for sealing
  
  
• T- 1:00:00 Launch vehicle control system prepared for use; gyro instruments activated
  
  
• T - :45:00 Launch pad service structure halves are lowered
  
  
• T- :40:00 Re-entry vehicle hardware testing complete; leak checks performed on suits
  
  
• T- :30:00 Emergency escape system armed; launch command supply unit activated
  
  
• T- :25:00 Service towers withdrawn
  
  
• T- :15:00 Suit leak tests complete; crew engages personal escape hardware auto mode
  
  
• T- :10:00 Launch gyro instruments uncaged; crew activates on-board recorders
  
  
• T- 7:00 All prelaunch operations are complete
  
  
• T- 6:15 Key to launch command given at the launch site;
  -- Automatic program of final launch operations is activated
  
  
• T- 6:00 All launch complex and vehicle systems ready for launch
  
  
• T- 5:00 Onboard systems switched to onboard control;
  -- Ground measurement system activated by RUN 1 command;
  -- Commander's controls activated;
  -- Crew switches to suit air by closing helmets;
  -- Launch key inserted in launch bunker
  
  
• T- 3:15 Combustion chambers of side and central engine pods purged with nitrogen
  
  
• T- 2:30 Booster propellant tank pressurization starts;
  -- Onboard measurement system activated by RUN 2 command;
  -- Prelaunch pressurization of all tanks with nitrogen begins
  
  
• T- 2:15 Oxidizer and fuel drain and safety valves of launch vehicle are closed;
  -- Ground filling of oxidizer and nitrogen to the launch vehicle is terminated
  
  
• T- 1:00 Vehicle on internal power;
  -- Automatic sequencer on;
  -- First umbilical tower separates from booster
  
  
• T- :40 Ground power supply umbilical to third stage is disconnected
  
  
• T- :20 Launch command given at the launch position;
  -- Central and side pod engines are turned on
  
  
• T- :15 Second umbilical tower separates from booster
  
  
• T- :10 Engine turbopumps at flight speed
  
  
• T- :05 First stage engines at maximum thrust
  
  
• T- :00 Fueling tower separates;
  -- Lift off

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2005

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome tonight with the International Space Station's twelfth resident crew and a paying tourist aboard.

Liftoff from Kazakhstan is scheduled for 11:54:44 p.m. EDT (0354:44 GMT), beginning a 9-minute ascent to orbit for the three-stage rocket.

In control will be Soyuz commander Valery Tokarev, 52, a veteran cosmonaut with a 1999 space shuttle mission to the space station to his credit. Along side will be Bill McArthur, 54, a NASA astronaut with space experience from three previous shuttle flights, and 60-year-old paying passenger, Greg Olsen.

The Soyuz TMA-7 will make a two-day trek to reach the station for docking to the Pirs module on Monday around 1:40 a.m. EDT (0540 GMT).

McArthur becomes space station commander of the Expedition 12 mission, with Tokarev serving as flight engineer for their half-year voyage aboard the outpost. The two will replace outgoing Expedition 11 commander Sergei Krikalev and flight engineer John Phillips who depart the station and return to October 10 after 179 days in space.

Olsen launches with Expedition 12 and lands with Expedition 11, giving him eight days aboard the station under a contract signed with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

A detailed preview of Expedition 12 and its crew from the pre-launch press kit is posted below:

A veteran crew will be flying aboard the International Space Station this fall, working to maintain the readiness of the complex for the resumption of assembly work on space shuttle missions in 2006.

NASA astronaut William McArthur, 54, a retired U.S. Army colonel, will command Expedition 12 on this, his fourth flight into space. Valery Tokarev (pron: Vuh-lair'-ee Toe'-kuh-reff), 52, a colonel in the Russian Air Force who flew to the space station in 1999 on a shuttle mission, will serve as Flight Engineer and Soyuz commander.

McArthur and Tokarev will launch on the ISS Soyuz 11, or TMA-7, spacecraft on Oct. 1 (local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a two-day flight to link up to the Pirs Docking Compartment on the ISS. They will be joined on the Soyuz by American businessman Gregory Olsen, 60, who will spend eight days on the station under a contract signed with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) to become the third private citizen to reach the complex.

Olsen will return to Earth on the ISS Soyuz 10, or TMA-6, capsule with Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer John Phillips in the early morning hours of Oct. 11, Kazakhstan time. They have been aboard the station since April. In August, Krikalev broke the record for most days in space by any human.

McArthur and Tokarev were to have been joined during Expedition 12 by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter (pron: Toe-mahs' Rye'-tuhr) of Germany, 47, who is slated to fly into space on the STS-121 mission. With that shuttle mission delayed until no earlier than March 2006, Reiter would arrive at the ISS in the final days of the Expedition 12 increment. Reiter, who flew for six months on the Russian Mir Space Station on his previous flight, would be the first non-American or Russian long-duration crewmember on the space station under a commercial agreement between ESA and Roscosmos.

Once on board, McArthur and Tokarev will conduct more than a week of handover activities with Krikalev and Phillips, familiarizing themselves with station systems and procedures. They will also receive proficiency training on the Canadarm2 robotic arm from Phillips and will engage in safety briefings with the departing Expedition 11 crew as well as payload and scientific equipment training.

McArthur and Tokarev will assume formal control of the station at the time of hatch closure for the Expedition 11 crewmembers shortly before they and Olsen undock their Soyuz from its docking port at the Zarya Module. With Krikalev at the controls of Soyuz, he, Phillips and Olsen will land in the steppes of north-central Kazakhstan to wrap up their six-month mission. Olsen's mission will span 10 days.

After landing, Krikalev and Phillips will be flown from Kazakhstan to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for about two weeks of initial physical rehabilitation. Olsen will spend a much shorter time acclimating himself to Earth's gravity due to the brevity of his flight.

McArthur and Tokarev are expected to spend about six months aboard the ISS. After the Columbia accident on Feb. 1, 2003, the ISS Program and the international partners determined that the station would be occupied by only two crewmembers until the resumption of shuttle flights because of limitations on consumables. Once Reiter arrives on board, the station will operate with a three-person crew for the first time since May 2003.

Station operations and maintenance will take up a considerable share of the time for the Expedition 12 crewmembers, but science will continue, as will science-focused education activities and Earth observations.

The science team at the Payload Operations Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will operate some experiments without crew input and other experiments are designed to function autonomously. Together, operation of individual experiments is expected to total several thousand hours, adding to the more than 100,000 hours of experiment operation time already accumulated aboard the station.

During their six months aloft, McArthur and Tokarev will monitor the arrival of at least one Russian Progress resupply cargo ship filled with food, fuel, water and supplies. They will also relocate their Soyuz spacecraft from their Pirs docking port to the Zarya docking port to free up the Pirs airlock to support spacewalk activity from the Russian segment.

The ISS Progress 20 cargo ship is scheduled to reach the station in December. The Progress craft will link up to the aft port of Zvezda.

U.S. and Russian specialists are reviewing the complement of tasks that might be included in the spacewalks that would be conducted by McArthur and Tokarev during their mission. The tasks focus on continued outfitting of station hardware and electrical systems and preparing external hardware for the addition of station elements. There are plans for a spacewalk from the Quest Airlock in November and one from the Russian Pirs Airlock in December. An additional spacewalk from Quest may be added in early 2006.

McArthur is a veteran of two previous spacewalks on the STS-92 shuttle mission that installed the Z1 truss structure on the station in 2000. Tokarev would be conducting his first spacewalk.

Also on the crew's agenda is work with the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2. Robotics work will focus on observations of the station's exterior, maintaining operator proficiency and completing the schedule of on-orbit checkout requirements that were developed to fully characterize the performance of the robotic system.

NASA and its international partners named the Expedition 12 crew in May 2005. Astronaut William S. McArthur Jr. and cosmonaut Valery I. Tokarev previously trained together as backups for Expedition 8 and 10.

McArthur and Tokarev will swap places with Expedition 11's Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips during the Russian Soyuz crew rotation mission in October 2005.

Commander William McArthur, representing NASA, is a veteran of three spaceflights, including two previous visits to space stations ­ one to the Russian Mir space station and one to the International Space Station. McArthur conducted three spacewalks during his previous mission to the International Space Station on the STS-92 mission in 2000 that set the stage for the arrival of the first expedition crew. This will be McArthur's first long-duration mission aboard the complex. He will be responsible for the overall success of the mission and will serve as the NASA science officer, monitoring and operating a suite of U.S. science experiments. He is expected to conduct spacewalks during the flight in both U.S. and Russian Orlan suits.

Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev (FE-1), representing Roscosmos, flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery on STS-96, a joint mission to the space station in 1999. This will be his first long-duration spaceflight. Tokarev will serve as the Soyuz spacecraft commander, responsible for launch, rendezvous, docking, undocking and landing operations. He will also oversee rendezvous and dockings of Russian cargo spacecraft and the suite of Russian experiments onboard the station. He will conduct spacewalks during the flight in both U.S. and Russian Orlan suits.