Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Arrival at Space Station Delayed; Soyuz TMA-12M launched from Baikonur

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: March 26, 2014 2:51:33 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Arrival at Space Station Delayed; Soyuz TMA-12M launched from Baikonur

Новости Роскосмоса
Ракета «Союз-ФГ» с пилотируемым кораблем «Союз ТМА-12М» стартовала с космодрома Байконур
26.03.2014 01:35
26 марта в 01 час 17 минут 23 секунды по московскому времени со стартового комплекса площадки 1 («Гагаринский старт») космодрома Байконур пусковыми расчетами предприятий ракетно-космической промышленности России произведен успешный пуск ракеты космического назначения (РКН) «Союз-ФГ», предназначенной для выведения на орбиту транспортного пилотируемого корабля (ТПК) «Союз ТМА-12М».
Через 528 секунд полета ТПК «Союз ТМА-12М» штатно отделился от третьей ступени ракеты-носителя на орбите искусственного спутника Земли. Экипаж корабля в составе командира Александра Скворцова (Роскосмос) и бортинженеров - Олега Артемьева (Роскосмос) и Стивена Свонсона (НАСА) чувствуется себя хорошо.
Стыковка ТПК «Союз ТМА-12М» с Международной космической станцией запланирована на 07.04 мск сегодня 26 марта.
Пресс-служба Роскосмоса

Rocket "Soyuz-FG" with manned spacecraft "Soyuz TMA-12M" was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
26.03.2014 1:35
March 26 at 1:00 17 minutes 23 seconds Moscow time from the launch pad complex 1 ("Gagarin's Start") Baikonur Cosmodrome launchers calculations of rocket-space industry Russia conducted a successful launch (ILV) "Soyuz-FG" designed to of the launch of manned spacecraft (WPK) "Soyuz TMA-12M."
528 seconds of flight through TPK "Soyuz TMA-12M" cleanly separated from the third stage rocket orbiting artificial satellite. Crew consisting of commander Alexander Skvortsov (Roscosmos) and flight engineers - Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos) and Steven Swanson (NASA) feels good.
Docking TPK "Soyuz TMA-12M" to the International Space Station is scheduled for 07.04 MSK today March 26.
Roscosmos press service

Новости Роскосмоса
Расчетное время стыковки ТПК «Союз ТМА-12М» с МКС – 28 марта
26.03.2014 07:40
По состоянию на 7.00 мск 26 марта с.г. экипаж космического корабля «Союз ТМА-12М» (Александр Скворцов, Олег Артемьев и Стивен Свонсон) выполняет полет по установленной программе. Состояние экипажа хорошее, параметры среды обитания в норме. Экипаж снял скафандры и продолжает полет в плановом режиме.
Вместе с тем задача стыковки космического корабля с Международной космической станцией будет осуществляться по расчетной двухсуточной схеме сближения. Это решение связано с возникшими осложнениями в работе системы ориентации транспортного корабля. Информация анализируется. Расчетное время стыковки корабля с МКС – 28 марта.
Пресс-служба Роскосмоса

Estimated time of docking TPK "Soyuz TMA-12M" to the ISS - 28 March
26.03.2014 7:40
As at 7.00 MSK March 26 crew "Soyuz TMA-12M" (Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and Steven Swanson) flies to the established program. Good condition of the crew, habitat parameters are normal.The crew took flight suits and continues as planned.
However, the task of spacecraft docking with the International Space Station will be calculated on a two-night rendezvous scheme. This decision is due to the complications arising in the orientation system of the transport ship. The information is analyzed. Estimated time of docking to the ISS - March 28.
Roscosmos press service

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Soyuz TMA-12M launched to the International Space Station.
The crew onboard the spacecraft consists of: O. Artemyev, A. Skvortsov, S. Swanson.
March 26, 2014
In accordance with the mission plan of the International Space Station (ISS) and Russian commitments under this international project, a manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12M was launched from Baikonur launch site at 01:17:23 Moscow Time.

March 26, 2014
Soyuz TMA-12M launched to the International Space Station. The crew onboard the spacecraft consists of: O. Artemyev, A. Skvortsov, S. Swanson.
In accordance with the mission plan of the International Space Station (ISS) and Russian commitments under this international project, a manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12M was launched from Baikonur launch site at 01:17:23 Moscow Time.
The objective of the launch is to deliver to the station a crew of three in order to bring the crew of the Expedition ISS-39 up to six.
The crew of Soyuz TMA-12M consists of: Russian cosmonauts A. Skvortsov (the spacecraft commander) and O. Artemyev (flight engineer), US astronaut S. Swanson (flight engineer-2).
The spacecraft was put into a parking low-Earth orbit with the following parameters: 51.67° inclination , 199.58 km minimal altitude, 261.79 km maximum altitude, 88.81 minutes orbital period.
The onboard systems of the spacecraft operate normally.
At the launch site, the spacecraft prelaunch processing and launch were performed under the direction of the State Commission for Flight Testing of Manned Space Systems (chaired by the head of Roscosmos O.N. Ostapenko). The Commission was basing its decisions to proceed with each next step in processing and launching on the final report of the Technical Management for Flight Tests of Manned Space Systems headed by the President of RSC Energia, Designer General V.A. Lopota.
According to the telemetry data and reports from the crew of ISS, the space station systems operate normally. The station is ready for docking with the spacecraft.
For information:
RSC Energia is the prime manned space flight organization in the Russian rocket and space industry, responsible for the development of the ISS Russian Segment, its integration into the Space Station and its operation, including development and operation of the principal modules of the Segment (Zvezda, Pirs, Poisk, Rassvet, etc.), manufacturing, launch and operation of Soyuz TMA and Progress M spacecraft.
Currently working onboard ISS is the crew of ISS-39 consisting of: Russian cosmonaut M. Tyurin, US astronaut R. Mastracchio, and Japanese astronaut K. Wakata.

© 2000 - 2014 S.P. Korolev RSC "Energia"

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Manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12M in free flight. Docking with International Space Station postponed till March 28.
March 26, 2014
Russian manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12M has switched over to the standard free-flight program which calls for performing the rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station (ISS) two days after the launch, on March 28.

March 26, 2014
Manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12M in free flight. Docking with International Space Station postponed till March 28.
Russian manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12M has switched over to the standard free-flight program which calls for performing the rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station (ISS) two days after the launch, on March 28.
The decision to switch to this rendezvous profile was made because of the need to conduct a more detailed analysis of the received telemetry data on the operation of the spacecraft attitude control system.

© 2000 - 2014 S.P. Korolev RSC "Energia"

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March 25, 2014
RELEASE 14-092

New Crew Launches to Space Station to Continue Scientific Research
The Soyuz TMA-12M rocket launches from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 (local time) carrying Expedition 39 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Steven Swanson of NASA, and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos to the International Space Station.
Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Three crew members representing the United States and Russia are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT Tuesday (3:17 a.m. on March 26 in Baikonur).
The Soyuz capsule carrying Steve Swanson of NASA and Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) is scheduled to dock with the space station about six hours after launch at 11:05 p.m.
NASA Television coverage will begin at 10:30 p.m. Hatches are scheduled to open at about 12:45 a.m., Wednesday, with NASA TV coverage starting at 12:15 a.m.
The arrival of Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev returns the station's crew complement to six. The three will join Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency -- the first Japanese astronaut to command the space station -- Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos. They have been aboard the complex since November 2013.
The crew members will conduct hundreds of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations during their six-month sojourn on the orbiting laboratory. These include looking at how the microgravity environment affects the body's ability to fight infection; trying to grow healthy, tasty produce in space; and testing a new laser communications package.
One experiment, called T-Cell Activation in Aging, studies depression of the human immune system in microgravity. T-cells, which are a type of white cell, are coated with chemical receptors that must trigger together to activate the body's immune system properly. T-cells from spaceflight crews and ground volunteers in a range of ages will be analyzed.
The Veggie hardware validation test will evaluate a new plant growth system that might make it feasible to eat plants grown on the space station. Veggie provides lighting and nutrient delivery for efficient plant growth in space. The plants grown in Veggie can support a wide range of uses, from research and education outreach, to a fresh food source and recreational gardening activities for long duration space missions, which eventually will include missions to an asteroid and Mars.
Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) will test the potential for using a laser to transmit data to Earth from space. Instead of being broadcast on radio waves, data is packaged onto beams of laser light and pointed to a receiver station on the ground. Radio wave transmissions are limited by the speed they can transfer data, but beaming information packages with lasers can greatly increase the amount of information transmitted over the same period of time.
The Soyuz also is carrying hardware for the Microbiome investigation, which will continue studies on the impact of space travel on the immune system and on human microbiomes, the scientific name for the many different microbes living in and on the human body at any given time. Like the previous expeditions, samples from crew members' bodies and the space station environment will be taken periodically to monitor changes in the immune system and microbiomes. The results of this study may add to research on health impacts to people who live and work in extreme environments on Earth and help with research on early disease detection, metabolic function and immune system deficiency.
The Expedition 39 crew will perform additional experiments that cover human research, biological and physical sciences, technology development and Earth observations, as well as engage in educational activities. The crew will conduct a pair of Russian spacewalks and as many as three U.S. spacewalks. They will greet two Russian Progress spacecraft resupply flights, the final European ATV cargo spacecraft, the second commercial resupply flight of Orbital Science's Cygnus spacecraft, and the third and fourth flights of SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft.
The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has had continuous human occupation since November 2000. In that time, it has received more than 200 visitors and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in exploration.
For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
-end-
Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck@nasa.gov
Josh Byerly
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
josh.byerly@nasa.gov

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Expedition 39/40 Trio's Arrival at Space Station Delayed
March 25, 2014
Rick Mastracchio had a great view from the space station and tweeted this image as he saw his crew mates launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Image Credit: NASA
View Tweet

Expedition 39 crew members wave farewell before boarding their Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft.
Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
View Flickr image

The next trio of crew members destined for the International Space Station is now looking forward to a Thursday arrival at the orbiting laboratory after their Soyuz spacecraft was unable to complete its third thruster burn to fine-tune its approach.
Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Steve Swanson of NASA are in good spirits aboard the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft, and their colleagues already aboard the station were informed of the new plan. Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Flight Engineers Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos were expecting their new crewmates to dock at 11:05 p.m. EDT Tuesday night, but now will need to wait a little longer.
Flight controllers in the Mission Control Center outside Moscow are now reverting to a backup 34-orbit rendezvous, which would result in an arrival and docking at 7:58 p.m. Thursday, March 27. Rendezvous experts are reviewing the plan, and may update it later as necessary. Docking will be at the station's Poisk docking module.
This longer rendezvous and docking pattern was the standard rendezvous profile until last year; this would have been the fifth rendezvous using the accelerated timeline. The last two-day rendezvous was Expedition 34, which launched on Dec. 19, 2012, and docked to the station on Dec. 21, 2012. That Soyuz crew included NASA's Tom Marshburn, the Canadian Space Agency's Chris Hadfield and Roscosmos' Roman Romanenko. The first same-day rendezvous and docking was Expedition 35, which launched on March 28, 2013, and docked to the station March 29. That crew included NASA's Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos' Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin.
Flight controllers in Moscow are reviewing data to determine the reason the third thruster burn did not occur. In conversations between flight controllers in Moscow and Houston, initial information indicates the problem may have been the spacecraft was not in the proper attitude, or orientation, for the burn.
Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev are scheduled to return home in September as Expedition 40 crew members. They will officially become Expedition 40 when Expedition 39 crew members Wakata, Mastracchio and Tyurin end their mission and undock in their Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft in May for their return to Earth.
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Soyuz manned spaceship launched from Baikonur
March 26, 4:44 UTC+4
Spaceship is carrying Russian cosmonauts and American astronaut

Soyuz spaceship
ЕРА/Maxim Shipenkov
BAIKONUR, March 26, 4:35 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Soyuz manned spaceship with an international crew of next long-duration expedition, the ISS-39/40, has been launched from Baikonur spaceport Wednesday.
Spaceship separated from the carrier rocket nine minutes later and reached the designated orbit, a source at the spaceport told Itar-Tass.
The spaceship Soyuz TMA-12M is carrying Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, and American astronaut Steve Swanson. They are to work in orbit for about five months.
© Copyright 2014 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved.

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Soyuz docking with ISS delayed for 2 days due to attitude control system deviation

March 26, 8:07 UTC+4
Operations in the first stage of orbiting spaceship Soyuz TMA-12M were carried out as scheduled, the crew is on a flight according to the scheduled program

The Russian Soyuz TMA-12M rocket lifts off from Baikonur
EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
BAIKONUR, March 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Docking of piloted spaceship Soyuz with the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for 7.04am Moscow time (3.04am GMT) on Wednesday is delayed for two days due to deviation in attitude control system, head of Russian space agency Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko told reporters on Wednesday.
Soyuz manned spaceship launched from Baikonur

"Docking of the spaceship with the ISS will be made according to a two-day rendezvous program. This decision is caused by some problems in operation of attitude control system," he said.
"There is nothing extraordinary," he noted, adding that docking is planned in the morning on March 28 as of now.
Operations in the first stage of orbiting spaceship Soyuz TMA-12M were carried out as scheduled, the crew is on a flight according to the scheduled program presently, the Roscosmos chief said. "Health of crew is good, parameters of living environment are normal. The crewmembers took off spacesuits and continue the fight in planned mode," he said.
In reply to the question whether current situation would affect dockings in the future Ostapenko assured reporters that future piloted spaceships Soyuz would dock with the ISS according to a six-hour scheme.
"In any action and not only in the space, but also on the Earth, moreover, in the space, we always consider issues of redundancy in all actions, this is a normal situation, this should be so in everything," the Roscosmos head said.
"The scheme that exists is practiced and we will fulfill future actions on piloted space program within it," he noted.
For his part, head of the Cosmonaut Training Centre Sergey Krikalev also assured reporters that nothing "awful happened", as cosmonauts were feeling well and were working according to the plan. "We have just passed from one scheduled scheme to another one," he said.
In his words, the crew shifts to standby docking system in case of any even slightest malfunctions, should this be some breakdown of any system or even crew's failure to go into a communication session with the Earth. Food, fuel and oxygen stocks onboard the spaceship is available for a two-day docking scheme with the orbital station.

© Copyright 2014 ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved.

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Russian Soyuz to Automatically Dock With Station Friday
Launch of Soyuz TMA-12M manned spacecraft from Baikonur
© RIA Novosti. Ramil Sitdikov
15:55 26/03/2014

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a trio of crew members is scheduled to dock automatically with the International Space Station on Friday, senior Russian space officials said Wednesday.
Vitaly Lopota, the head of the company that oversees the manufacture of the craft, said cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev along with NASA astronaut Steven Swanson are "in good health" and will rendezvous with the station early Friday morning.
The Soyuz spacecraft was originally scheduled to dock with the ISS on Wednesday, but was unable to complete a fine-tune burn of its engines for an expedited approach, a flight path that has only been recently tested in an effort to reduce the time astronauts spend in the cramped craft.
"We will use the typical two-day rendezvous scheme," Lopota said, adding the glitch in the attitude control system would be fixed by a recalibration procedure.
"This is not an emergency situation," said Oleg Ostapenko, the head of the Russian space program.
Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson are scheduled to return home in September after a six-month stay on the station conducting an extensive scientific program and maintaining a space blog of their daily life, in addition to overseeing maintenance operations including unloading a Russian Progress cargo vehicle and coordinating the docking of the European ATV-5 resupply craft.

© 2014 RIA Novosti

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Soyuz sets off after station; rendezvous snag delays docking
03/25/2014 10:13 PM
Editor's note...
Posted at 11:20 AM ET, 03/25/14: Soyuz set to launch two Russians, NASA astronaut to station
Updated at 05:40 PM ET, 03/25/14: Soyuz rocket climbs into space (9grafld-pickup4thgraf: If all goes well x x x)
Updated at 09:50 PM ET, 03/25/14: Four-orbit rendezvous aborted; station docking delayed to Thursday at earliest
By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

A veteran Russian space station commander, a rookie cosmonaut and a NASA shuttle flier rocketed smoothly into space aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft Tuesday, but the crew ran into problems executing a required rendezvous rocket firing, delaying docking with the International Space Station until Thursday at the earliest.

Soyuz TMA-12M commander Alexander Skvortsov, flight engineer Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 3:17 a.m. Wednesday local time), kicking off a planned four-orbit six-hour rendezvous with the station.

The fast-track rendezvous procedure replaced a more traditional two-day approach to the lab complex that Soyuz crews followed for most of the 15-year lifetime of the space station. Only four previous crewed missions to the outpost used the four-orbit procedure and flight controllers always hold the two-day profile in reserve if needed.
The Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA shuttle veteran on a flight to the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA TV)

Skvortsov and his crewmates had hoped to be the fifth crew to carry out a four-orbit rendezvous. They executed the first two rendezvous firings on schedule, but the third firing was not carried out, apparently because the spacecraft was not in the expected attitude, or orientation.

With the rendezvous sequence interrupted, Russian flight controllers defaulted to the more traditional two-day sequence while engineers reviewed telemetry and stood by for additional passes over Russian ground stations to collect more data.

"Right now, we don't understand exactly what happened," a Russian flight controller radioed the crew. "So we'll analyze and review all the telemetry. On the next orbit, there will be a comm pass. ... During this comm pass, we'll download the whole mass of telemetry and we will analyze it and review it and we'll try to figure out what happened."

The two-day rendezvous profile will be familiar to Skvortsov, who followed the same set of procedures during his first flight to the space station in 2010.

Assuming the problem can be resolved in time, Skvortsov will oversee an automated docking at the station's upper Poisk module around 7:58 p.m. Thursday. Josh Byerly, NASA's mission control commentator, said the crew was in no danger, and that more than enough supplies were on board to support a two-day 34-orbit rendezvous.

Whenever they arrive, Skvortsov and his crewmates will be welcomed aboard the space station by Expedition 39 commander Koichi Wakata, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio.

Wakata and his two crewmates have had the station to themselves since March 11 when Soyuz TMA-10M commander Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mike Hopkins returned to Earth. Wakata and his crewmates are scheduled to follow suit in their Soyuz TMA-11M ferry craft on May 13.

That will clear the way for launch of Soyuz TMA-13M commander Maxim Suraev, a Russian space veteran, and two rookies: European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman.

The tight choreography between U.S. and Russian flight control centers to keep the space station healthy, adequately supplied and staffed with rotating international crews illustrates how dependent both sides are on each other.

The Russian segment of the space station uses electricity generated by NASA solar arrays, taps into the station's computer network, uses NASA's communications satellites and relies on U.S. gyroscopes and flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to keep the outpost properly oriented without having to use precious rocket fuel.

NASA, in turn, relies on the Russians to ferry U.S. and partner astronauts to and from the station aboard Soyuz spacecraft and to provide the rocket power needed for major station maneuvers. And both sides share critical life support systems and launch uncrewed cargo ships to keep the station supplied.

NASA hopes to have one or more commercially developed spacecraft capable of carrying NASA astronauts to and from the station by around 2017. But until then, the agency must rely on the Russians, paying up to $70 million per seat aboard Soyuz spacecraft.

Despite increased superpower tensions over Ukraine and Crimea, "there is this kind of mutual dependency (with the station program) that would make it not in Russia's interest to cut off our access," John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, said in an interview.

"And it's certainly not in our interest to so alienate Russia that we no longer had access to the station," he said. "So, I think the by far most likely outcome is kind of encapsulating the station from the broader political currents."
Soyuz TMA-12M commander Alexander Skvortsov, left, and flight engineer Oleg Artemyev, right, monitor cockpit displays during the climb to space. NASA astronaut Steven Swanson is out of view to Skvortsov's right. (Credit: NASA TV)

In an interview last week in Houston, during training for his May flight to the space station, Wiseman downplayed the current conflict, saying "the politics starts to fall by the wayside" when working with Russian space engineers, flight controllers and cosmonauts on a daily basis.

"Working with my commander and all the Russian trainers over there, these people are not just my colleagues, they're all my friends," he said. "And so sure, we don't want to see political turmoil, and it could ultimately get in the way of our spaceflight.

"But from the operator standpoint looking up, this is absolutely a non issue for us," he said. "I mean, we're three really good friends climbing into a Soyuz to fly into space. All politics aside, there's no doubt it's going to work for us."

While Russian President Vladimir Putin could step in at some point to block U.S. access to Soyuz flights, "it basically would be a catastrophe for the station," Logsdon said. "Cutting off U.S. access to station would be kind of a last-resort action that would reflect a total breakdown of U.S.-Russian relationships."

He does not believe it will come to that. But he said the current conflict may encourage U.S. lawmakers to fully fund NASA's commercial crewed spacecraft program to ensure American access to space as soon as possible.

"This sends a very clear message that the sooner we get off of depending on Russia for transportation, the better off we are," Logsdon said. "It's conceivable the White House will use some of its political clout to make sure commercial crew (program) gets fully funded."

For their part, the Soyuz TMA-12M crew is focused squarely on its upcoming mission.

Skvortsov spent 176 days aboard the space station in 2010, serving as a flight engineer with Expedition 23 and commander of Expedition 24. This time around, he will serve as a flight engineer throughout a planned 169-day stay, serving with the Expedition 39 and 40 crews.

In a pre-flight interview, Skvortsov said his first spaceflight, and the view of Earth from orbit, changed his perspective, making him much more aware of environmental issues.

"It is my firm belief that ecological problems do need addressing," he said. "Unfortunately, there are too many places where mankind is creating damage. Ecological problems ... are something all of us have in common. This planet is our home."

Swanson spent 27 days in space during two shuttle missions in 2007 and 2009. He will serve as a flight engineer during the remainder of Expedition 39, taking over as commander of Expedition 40 when Wakata, Mastracchio and Tyurin depart in May.

Serving as commander means "looking more at the big picture, you know, how we're going to operate as a team," Swanson said. "And then also just the consumables on board, how much oxygen, water, how all that works, keeping all that in mind and just kind of knowing what the ground is always thinking of."

"I think that's kind of your job (as commander), just to be part of that whole, big team, and have that interface with the ground to make sure it's going smoothly."

Swanson is a computer software expert who consider himself a scientist-engineer. He said he's particularly looking forward to operating a wide variety of experiments during his stay aboard the station.

"We have over 170 experiments going on, we've been trained in a lot of them," he said. "They vary, of course, to ones we don't even touch, to ones that we are the technical operator on but we don't do anything but start them up and get them set to go. And there are ones we are the actual subjects for.

"For me, the ones I'm most interested in are the ones that I'm doing. Those have to do with ocular health, what happens to your eyesight (in microgravity) and, of course, also working on muscle atrophy and bone loss."

During the course of their stay aboard the station, Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson will oversee the arrival of three uncrewed supply ships -- one Russian Progress, an Orbital Sciences Cygnus and a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

Two Russian spacewalks are planned during Expedition 40, along with two and possibly three U.S. excursions. The details are still be ironed out, but Swanson is expected to participate.

"I've done four so far (during the shuttle program), I've been very privileged, I appreciate that opportunity," Swanson said. "To do it again (will) be great.

"The views are amazing out there. It's hard to describe because it's so different from anything else, but just the idea of going out in your own little space vehicle and working on the station, making it better, and also just relaxing and seeing the whole Earth below you is a fantastic thing."

Artemyev, the only rookie in the Soyuz TMA-12M crew, said he was eager to experience all aspects of spaceflight, especially getting a chance to live and work in the Russian Zvezda command module, which he helped build.

"I've been preparing for this mission for 11 years now," he said. "Now, I'm like that horse leaving the stable who really wants to race! So I'm interested in everything that I will be doing in my new home. ... I'm anticipating seeing the service module in person, because that's the module I was working on when I was an engineer at RSC Energia."

Asked what he might miss during his stay in space, Artemyev said "I can tell you for sure that the part we all miss the most is our family and being far away from family and friends and loved ones."

"That's the hardest thing we do, the feeling that you cannot be with your family or, God forbid, if something happens, you cannot do something for them, you cannot be by their side," he said. "That's the hardest thing by far."

Skvortsov, Swanson and Artemyev are scheduled to return to Earth on Sept. 11. Their replacements -- Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova -- are scheduled for launch Sept. 26. They will join Suraev, Gerst and Wiseman as part of the Expedition 41 crew.

© 2014 William Harwood/CBS News

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UPDATE 2: Crew's Space Station Docking Delayed Two Days Due To Glitch
by Elizabeth Howell on March 25, 2014
http://www.ustream.tv/flash/viewer.swf#!flashvars#cid=6540154&autoplay=false

Update, 10:13 p.m. EDT: Tonight's docking with the International Space Station will not happen because one of the engine firings scheduled to happen did not take place when it was supposed to. The crew is safe, according to NASA, and going to a standard backup plan that should bring the craft to the station on Thursday (2 days from now). Roscosmos is examining the issue. We will provide updates as warranted.
Update, 6:43 p.m. EDT: The Soyuz is on its way to space after an on-time launch — and by the way, astronauts saw it leave from the space station! It's en route and NASA is still expecting an arrival around 11:04 p.m. EDT., which you can watch live on NASA TV above.
Despite tensions on the ground between the United States and Russia, officials say that it's business as usual on the International Space Station. The three people launching to space today, in fact, are from both countries: Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Steve Swanson from NASA.
As has been the habit lately, the Expedition 39/40 crew will take a faster route to the International Space Station that see launch and docking happen in the same day, should all go to plan. It all begins with the launch at 5:17 p.m. EDT (9:17 p.m. UTC) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with docking scheduled to happen at 11:04 p.m. EDT (3:04 a.m. UTC).
Bear in mind that schedules are subject to change, so it's a good idea to watch NASA TV (see video above) well before each milestone to see if things are happening on time. Once the crew arrives at station, one big question is if they'll do spacewalks when they get there.
Last July, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano experienced a severe water leak in his NASA spacesuit that sent the crew scrambling back to the station. While Parmitano emerged physically all right, the agency opened an investigation and suspended all non-essential activities. A report was issued in February and the agency pledged to deal with all the urgent items quickly.
Spacewalks are planned for Expedition 40, but only if these urgent items are cleared in time for that. (That expedition begins in May and will include NASA astronauts Alex Gerst, Reid Wiseman and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev.)
Steve Swanson, commander of Expedition 40, during a spacewalk on 2007 shuttle mission STS-117. Credit: NASA
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Seen From Space! Crew's Rocket Launch Spotted By NASA Astronaut In Orbit
by Elizabeth Howell on March 25, 2014

The launch of Expedition 39/40′s Steve Swanson, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev in Kazakhstan as seen from space. Picture captured by NASA's Rick Mastracchio aboard the International Space Station on March 25, 2014. Credit: Rick Mastracchio
Seriously, how cool is this picture? The International Space Station crew caught an incredible view of their three future crewmates rocketing up to meet them today around 5:17 p.m. EDT (9:17 p.m. UTC).
Expedition 39′s Rick Mastracchio (from NASA) shared this on Twitter, casually mentioning that he will expect more crewmates to arrive later today. Upon the rocket were Steve Swanson (NASA), Alexander Skvortsov (Roscosmos) and Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos).
Check out the launch video and some NASA pictures of the activities below the jump. (Update, 10:21 p.m. EDT: One of the engine firings did not take place as planned, meaning the astronauts will not dock with the station as planned tonight. The crew is safe and doing a standard backup plan that will bring them to the station on Thursday. We will provide updates as the situation progresses.)

#ISS #Exp39 arrives at #Soyuz launch pad. Watch launch live at 4:15p ET at http://t.co/qrm0Dzmt3M pic.twitter.com/NFXMBflKiY
— NASA (@NASA) March 25, 2014

Tune to NASA TV for #Exp39 #Soyuz launch to #ISS. Coverage at 4:15p ET, launch at 5:17p http://t.co/qrm0Dzmt3M pic.twitter.com/4WrM8gdL8F
— NASA (@NASA) March 25, 2014

First image of #Exp39 crew in #Soyuz with Quack the duck, who will let them know when they're in 0-g pic.twitter.com/fpNQmJB0Y9
— NASA (@NASA) March 25, 2014

The #Exp39 crew launched to the #ISS aboard a #Soyuz rocket at 5:17pm ET. They will dock with station at 11:05pm. pic.twitter.com/ep07MpVazf
— NASA (@NASA) March 25, 2014

And follow #Swanny as he becomes first @NASA_Astronaut to Instagram from space! http://t.co/WEhYJoVgxn pic.twitter.com/7cDkHxEsyi
— Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 25, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j2901CMGOhg

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Leaving politics behind, Russian-U.S. crew blasts off for space
By Irene Klotz

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The Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Steven …
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut blasted off for six-month stay aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday, a partnership unaffected by the political rancor and economic sanctions triggered by Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The Russian Soyuz rocket carrying cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson lifted off at 5:17 p.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The trip to the space station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 260 miles above Earth, was scheduled to take about six hours. However, an unknown problem caused the crew's Soyuz capsule to skip two planned steering maneuvers, delaying the crew's arrival until Thursday.
"The crew is in no danger. The Soyuz (is) equipped with plenty of consumables to go even beyond the next two days, should that be become necessary. Nobody expects that that will be the case," mission commentator Rob Navias said during a NASA Television broadcast.
Russian flight controllers expect to get more information about why the Soyuz's thrusters failed to fire when the capsule flies over ground communications stations later on Tuesday.
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The Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut S …
"Initial information indicates the problem may have been the spacecraft was not in the proper orientation for the burn," NASA said in a status report posted on its website.
Russia's state television channel Rossiya-24 quoted national space agency Roscosmos as saying the flight of the Soyuz spaceship was now taking place "in a reserve mode" after its orientation engines failed to ignite.
"It's all normal on board," it said.
Docking was tentatively retargeted for 7:58 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
Several hours before the docking, Soyuz will make a final emergency maneuver to enter the orbit of the space station, RIA news agency quoted a Russian space official as saying.
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Members of the International Space Station (ISS) crew, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov (L) an …
The arrival of Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson will return the station to a full six-member crew. The orbital outpost, a project of 15 nations, has been short-staffed since two other cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut returned to Earth on March 11.
The space station partnership, overseen by the United States and Russia, so far has been immunized from the political and economic fallout following Russia's invasion of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
"We don't want to see political turmoil and it could ultimately get in the way of our spaceflight, but from the operator standpoint ... this is absolutely a non-issue for us," NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, who is due to fly to the station in May, said in a CBS News interview on March 18.
"I mean, we're three really good friends climbing into a Soyuz (capsule) to fly into space. All politics aside, there's no doubt it's going to work for us," Wiseman said.
The United States currently pays Russia more than $63 million per seat to fly its astronauts to and from the space station.
The Russian part of the station taps electricity generated by U.S.-owned and operated solar wing panels and supplements its ground-based communications with NASA's orbital satellite network, among other U.S.-provided services.
One of the first orders of business for the newly arriving station crewmembers will be to capture and berth a Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo capsule, which is due to launch on Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Two Russian spacewalks are planned during the crew's six-month mission, as well as two or three outings overseen by NASA.
(Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova in Moscow and Dmitry Solovyov in Almaty; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Copyright © 2014 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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Technical hitch delays US-Russia crew's ISS docking
By Stuart WILLIAMS

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Moscow (AFP) - A US-Russian three-man crew Wednesday faced an unprecedented two-day delay in their docking with the International Space Station (ISS) after their Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered a technical glitch on its approach in orbit.

The two Russian cosmonauts and American astronaut were to have docked with the ISS early Wednesday, just six hours after launch from Kazakhstan, but the problem means that the docking is now only planned on Friday.
The trio will now orbit the Earth 34 times before their rendezvous with the international space laboratory, instead of the fast track route of four orbits originally envisaged.
US-Russia space cooperation has continued undimmed despite the diplomatic standoff over Ukraine and the joint work is seen as one of the few true success stories in post Cold War ties.
Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev along with Steve Swanson of NASA had taken off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in a spectacular night-time launch that initially went off without a problem.
The issue arose once their Soyuz capsule was in orbit and a thruster failed to fire to assist its approach for docking with the ISS.
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Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and a crew of US astronaut Steven Swanson, …
US space agency NASA said in a statement on its website that the Soyuz spacecraft "was unable to complete its third thruster burn to fine-tune its approach" to the orbiting space station.
The trio were using a fast-track approach to the ISS that Russia has been employing since 2013. After the problem, they are now using the traditional two-day longer approach that was employed up to 2012.
NASA said the three men were "in good spirits" despite the change of plan.
The Soyuz capsule later carried out two manoeuvres in orbit bringing it on the correct trajectory for the adapted two-day route to the ISS, a Roscosmos source told Interfax.
A third and final manoeuvre would be performed on Thursday to bring the craft to the right altitude for the eventual docking, the source added.
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Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and a crew of US astronaut Steven Swanson, …
- 'Mathematical problem?' -
NASA said Russian flight controllers were reviewing data to work out why the third thruster burn did not occur as planned.
"Initial information indicates the problem may have been the spacecraft was not in the proper attitude, or orientation, for the burn," NASA said.
The head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko said the problem appeared to have been triggered by a hitch with the orientation system.
"The crew have taken off their space suits and are continuing their flight normally," he said.
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Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and a crew of US astronaut Steven Swanson, …
The head of the Russian rocket state firm Energia that supplies the Soyuz rocket that propels the craft into space however said that the origin of the problem was not yet clear.
"It could be mathematics, it could be a transmitter problem or that the engine choked. But most likely it was a mathematical problem," said Vitaly Lopota, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
This would imply that ground scientists failed to work out the correct altitude in orbit for the thruster to fire to take the Soyuz to the ISS.
Roscosmos said the docking was now provisionally expected at 3:58 am Moscow time Friday (2358 GMT Thursday).
After the retirement of the US shuttle, NASA is for now wholly reliant on Russia for delivering astronauts to the space station on its tried-and-trusted Soyuz launch and capsule system.
- 'Friends in the kitchen' -
At the pre-flight news conference at Baikonur, senior astronauts Skvortsov and Swanson said they had decided to have dinners together on board the ISS "as an opportunity to come together as friends in the kitchen and look each other in the eye".
Skvortsov is making his second space flight and Swanson, a veteran of two past shuttle missions, his third.
Artemyev meanwhile is making his first voyage to space. He took part in a 2009 experiment where volunteers were shut up in a capsule at a Moscow laboratory for 105 days to simulate the effects of a possible voyage to Mars.
After docking, the trio will bring the ISS crew up to six by joining incumbent crew Koichi Wakata of Japan, American Rick Mastracchio and Russian Mikhail Tyurin.
Copyright © 2014 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.

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Snag delays arrival of crew at space station
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA

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Soyuz rocket begins journey to the International Space Station
MOSCOW (AP) — An engine snag has delayed the arrival of a Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station until Thursday.

A rocket carrying Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and American Steve Swanson to the space station blasted off successfully early Wednesday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 3:17 a.m. local time Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday). It entered a designated orbit about 10 minutes after the launch and was expected to reach the space station in six hours. All onboard systems were working flawlessly, and the crew was feeling fine.
NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said shortly before the planned docking that the arrival had been delayed after a 24-second engine burn that was necessary to adjust the Soyuz spacecraft's orbiting path "did not occur as planned."
The crew is in no danger, but will have to wait until Thursday for the Soyuz TMA-12M to arrive and dock at the space station, NASA said. The arrival is now scheduled for 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358 GMT) Thursday.
Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said on Wednesday that the glitch occurred because of a failure of the ship's orientation system. The crew is in good spirits and they have taken off their space suits to prepare for the long flight, Ostapenko said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.
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In this photo taken with a fisheye lens and long exposure, the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TM …
The Russian official said the crew is now working to adjust the spacecraft to the right orbit to make it for the Thursday docking.
Russian spacecraft used to routinely travel two days to reach the orbiting laboratory before last year. Wednesday would have been only the fifth time that a crew would have taken the six-hour "fast-track" route to the station.
So far, the tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine have been kept at bay. Since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft as the only means to ferry crew to the orbiting outpost and back.
The U.S. is paying Russia nearly $71 million per seat to fly astronauts to the space lab through 2017.
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Seth Borenstein in Washington, Alicia Chang in Los Angeles, and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Soyuz Rocket Launches New US-Russian Crew Toward Space Station
By Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer   |   March 25, 2014 05:24pm ET

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched an international trio of crewmembers to the International Space Station today (March 25), sending them into space for a 5.5-month stint on the orbiting laboratory.
The rocket launched a Soyuz capsule housing NASA's Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev at 5:17 p.m. EDT (2117 March 26 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, where the local time was 3:17 a.m. Wednesday. The three crewmembers are scheduled to dock with the space station at 11:05 p.m. EDT (0305 March 26 GMT), and you can watch the Soyuz's arrival live on Space.com via NASA TV starting at 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 March 26 GMT).
Expedition 39 crew sits inside the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft prior to launching to the International Space Station on March 25, 2014. The stuffed toy duck at left will serve as an indicator of reaching orbit, when it begins to float in zero-g.
Credit: NASA TV
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"Liftoff of Steve Swanson, Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov on a six-hour journey to the International Space Station," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said during launch. "The Soyuz lights up the night sky there at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan." [See photos of the US-Russian crew's Soyuz launch]
In keeping with tradition, ground controllers piped upbeat rock and country music into the Soyuz spacecraft for the three crewmembers before launch. Skvortsov also hung a small duck talisman nicknamed "Quack" in the crew capsule before liftoff. The duck toy was given to him by his daughter, according to Byerly.
Swanson, Artemyev and Skvortsov will join NASA's Rick Mastracchio, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, rounding out the station's Expedition 39 crew. The three newest residents of the space station are expected to float through the hatch about two hours after they dock to the outpost.
While the relationship between the United States and Russian governments has been tense due to Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea, the space station launch was unaffected by the recent crisis, NASA officials have said.
Tuesday's launch marked Swanson's third trip to space. He is the veteran of two space shuttle missions, but this will be his first long-duration stay in orbit. Swanson and the other space station astronauts have some fun plans for their free time onboard the space station.
"For my free time … the first thing is probably [to] look out the window at our beautiful planet," Swanson said during a prelaunch news conference. "We do plan on doing a few other fun things onboard. We're going to watch the World Cup and it should be a good game."
Skvortsov is also a veteran spaceflyer. The cosmonaut stayed onboard the space station in 2010, racking up 176 days in space.
Artemyev is making his first flight to space after participating in the Mars 500 mock Mars mission — an exercise designed to place volunteers in isolation on Earth for more than a year to simulate a mission to the Red Planet.
At the moment, Soyuz spacecraft are the only vehicles that transport NASA astronauts to the space station. NASA officials hope to start using private spaceships to ferry astronauts to and from orbit by 2017.
It's a busy week at the space station. The private spaceflight company SpaceX is planning to launch their third official resupply mission to the orbiting outpost using their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule on Sunday (March 30).

Copyright © 2014 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

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Russian Soyuz Spacecraft Skips Engine Burn in Orbit, Delays 3-Man Crew's Space Station Arrival
By Tariq Malik, Managing Editor   |   March 25, 2014 10:09pm ET

A Russian Soyuz rocket launches a Soyuz TMA-12M capsule carrying NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev toward the International Space Station on March 25, 2014 EDT from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls View full size image
This story was updated at 10:58 p.m. ET.
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft skipped a planned engine maneuver in orbit late Tuesday (March 25), forcing the its three-man crew to circle the Earth two extra days before reaching the International Space Station as planned, NASA officials say.
The Soyuz TMA-12M space capsule launched into space Tuesday carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts on what was expected to be a standard six-hour trip to the International Space Station. But the Soyuz spacecraft missed a critical engine burn to keep the capsule on course for its planned orbital arrival Tuesday night.
Riding aboard the Soyuz are NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. The U.S.-Russian crew will now arrive at the station on Thursday evening (March 27), NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said in an update. [See photos of the US-Russian crew's Soyuz launch]
"The crew is fine, but the ground teams are taking a look at what exactly happened aboard the Soyuz and what caused that [engine] burn to be skipped," Byerly said during NASA's televised coverage.
Expedition 39 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, bottom, Flight Engineer Steve Swanson of NASA, middle, and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, wave farewell prior to boarding the Soyuz TMA-12M rocket for launch, Wednesday, March 26, 2014 local time (March 25 EDT) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
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Russian Soyuz engineers are unsure if a software glitch or a mechanical malfunction caused the problem, Byerly said. An initial look at conversations between mission flight controllers in Moscow and Houston suggests, that the problem may beem caused by the Soyuz not being in the proper orientation for the planned engine burn, according to a NASA status update.
The Soyuz capsule launched into orbit atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT (2117 March 26 GMT). Its crew planned to join three other crewmates already aboard the station with docking at 11:05 p.m. EDT (0305 March 26 GMT)
Now, Swanson and his crewmates must wait until Thursday at 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358 GMT) to link up with the International Space Station, Byerly said, adding that the exact time of the docking could change.
"They have supplies to keep them in orbit for many, many days," Byerly said of the three space travelers.
By compressing flight tasks, crews going to the International Space Station can make the trip in one-eighth the time. See how Russia's fast-track 6-hour Soyuz flights to the space station work in this Space.com infographic.
Credit: Karl Tate, Space.com Infographics Artist
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Russia's Soyuz spacecraft originally flew on two-day rendezvous flights to the space station similar to the backup trajectory the current Soyuz mission is forced to fly now. It is a two-day trip that includes 32 orbits of Earth in order to catch up with the space station. The last two-day Soyuz trip before this mission was in December 2012.
Russia's Federal Space Agency began flying shorter, six-hour trips to the space station with unmanned cargo ships in 2012. The first crewed single-day trips to station on Soyuz vehicles launched in 2013.
A standard six-hour trip to the International Space Station includes four orbits of the Earth and requires four major engine burn maneuvers, performed automatically by the spacecraft, in order to reach the International Space Station.
Byerly said the Soyuz TMA-12M's flight computer failed to perform the third maneuver in the flight sequence slated for 7:48 p.m. EDT (2348 GMT).
"Right now we don't understand exactly what happened, so we'll analyze and review all the telemetry of it," a Russian flight controller radioed the Soyuz crew, according to a audio translation.
Russia's three-person Soyuz spacecraft are currently the only vehicles capable of ferrying astronaut and cosmonaut crews to and from the International Space Station. NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011, and is dependent on Russian Soyuz vehicles to fly American astronauts to the station and back. The U.S. space agency plans to fly American astronauts on commercial U.S. spacecraft beginning in 2017.
Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev are due to spend nearly six months in space during their current mission, which will bridge the space station's Expedition 39 and 40 crews. The trio will join Expedition 29's Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin already aboard the station, then stay on to serve as the outpost's Expedition 40 crew.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 10:50 pm ET to clarify that the cause of the Soyuz spacecraft's missed engine burn is being studies as a possible software issue, mechanical malfunction or incorrect attitude.

Copyright © 2014 TechMediaNetwork.com All rights reserved.

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Failed Soyuz Rendezvous Maneuver Delays Arrival of Three U. S. and Russian Astronauts at the International Space Station
Mark Carreau 2:57 AM on Mar 26, 2014

The three man U. S. and Russian crew aboard Russia's Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft was forced to postpone plans for an expedited transit to the International Space Station late Tuesday, when the third in a series of rendezvous maneuvers failed to occur, following an apparent flawless lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The mis-fire prompted tentative plans for a delayed ISS rendezvous and docking on Thursday at 7:58 p.m., EDT, allowing Mission Control Moscow to attempt space to ground communications over a series of U. S. as well as Russian ground station passes to determine whether the problem was soft or hardware related.

"The crew is fine," said spokesman NASA spokesman Josh Byerly, positioned in the agency's Mission Control Center in Houston, which monitored the intended fast paced launch and rendezvous operations.

U. S. astronaut Steve Swanson, Russian Soyuz commander Alexander Skvortsov and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 5:17 p.m., EDT, expecting to carry out a four orbit, six hour transit that was to have them docking to the station's Russian segment Poisk module at 11:05 p.m., EDT.

However, just after 10 p.m., EDT, NASA confirmed that the unexplained failure of the capsule's third post launch rendezvous maneuver, which was scheduled for 7:48 p.m., EDT, would require troubleshooting and tentative plans for an attempted linkup late Thursday. NASA called up ground stations at Wallops Island, Va., White Sands, N. M. and the Armstrong Flight Research Center, north of Los Angeles, to assist Russian flight controllers with their spacecraft communications.

The capsule may have been in the incorrect orientation for the maneuver, according to Russian flight controllers.

Thursday's expedited rendezvous and docking was to be the fifth in the series of "same day" launch and docking ISS transits initiated by Russia in March 2013 to hasten the journey for astronauts in the cramped confines of the Soyuz spacecraft.

The backup two day launch to ISS rendezvous strategy follows the same profile followed by Russia for the launching of ISS crews between late 2000 and March 2013. NASA's space shuttle missions, which stopped with the retirement of the winged space ships in mid-2011, used the same two day transit to assemble and re-supply the ISS beginning in late 1998.

Waiting aboard the ISS for the Soyuz docking were Koichi Wakata, Expedition 39 commander, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin. Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev are to replace Mike Hopkins, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazsanskiy, the U. S. and Russian trio that descended to Earth on March 10 after 5 1/2 months in orbit.

Copyright © 2014, Aviation Week, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved.
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