Soyuz MS-12 docks at the International Space Station

on March 15, at 04:02 Moscow time manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz MS-12 successfully docked the International Space Station (the ISS).

The spacecraft crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and flight engineers - NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch.

Onboard the International Space Station the Soyuz MS-12 crew was met by the ISS-59 expedition commander - Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and flight engineers - CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain.

According to the flight program, the spacecraft rendezvous with the ISS was implemented using a 4-orbit rendezvous profile. The approach and docking were performed in automatic mode under supervision of the ISS RS LOCT specialists at MCC and Russian crewmembers of the manned transportation spacecraft and the station.

The launch of integrated launch vehicle Soyuz-FG carrying the manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz MS-12 was performed from Site No. 1 ("Gagarin's launch pad") of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 14 at 22:14 Moscow time.

After the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle, specialists of the Lead Operational Control Team of the ISS Russian Segment (ISS RS LOCT) at the Mission Control Center assured control over its mission.

According to the telemetry information, the spacecraft was injected into a low earth orbit and separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle as scheduled. After separation all antennas and solar arrays were deployed. The system and assemblies of the manned transportation spacecraft operated normally.

Soyuz MS-12 delivered 126.9 kg of various cargo for the Russian cosmonauts and our ISS partners. These include the resource equipment, habitable environment monitoring devices, equipment for experiments, life support and personal crew items.

The expedition tasks include: implementing the research program, handling the Russian and US cargo and crew vehicles, keeping station in a good working order, carrying out extravehicular activities under the programs of the Russian and US Segments, performing onboard photo and video imagery for historical purposes of the ISS RS flight and symbolic activities.

At a period of the ISS-59/60 expedition it is scheduled to conduct more than 60 experiments among which there are two new joint experiments Adamant and s-FLAME to study the burning processes in microgravity conditions.

This May an extravehicular activity is planned to be performed from the ISS RS. It is expected that Oleg Kononenko and Alexy Ovchinic will clean the windows of the Station Russian Segment modules, as well as perform a number of operations under the applied research and experiments program. Our cosmonauts, in particular, will have to demonstrate panels Vynoslivost with samples of structural materials, replace the exposed tablets.

They will have to take samples in the scope of the Test experiment to study a capability of increasing the elements microdestruction of the Station Russian Segment modules under the effect of the components of own external atmosphere (OEA) and the availability of conditions for vital activity of microflora under MLI.

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3 astronauts on Soyuz craft successfully reach ISS
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) March 15, 2019
A Russian cosmonaut and two US astronauts arrived Friday at the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, five months after the failed launch of a rocket carrying two of the passengers. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and his Russian colleague Alexey Ovchinin, who both survived a dramatically aborted Soyuz launch last year, were joined on the smoothly-executed trip by NASA astronaut Christina Koch. The rocket blasted off without incident from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakh ... read more