Three new Expedition 42 crew members will join the current crew aboard the International Space Station. Final preparations are being done before the launch on Sunday and the six hour ride, according to NASA. The rocket with the Soyuz capsule was rolled out onto the launch pad in Kazakhstan on Friday.
NASA Television will cover the launch on Sun., Nov. 23 starting at 3 p.m. EST. Video of prelaunch activities will also be broadcast, according to a NASA press release.
The rocket will launch at 4:01 p.m. EST. The Soyuz capsule will orbit the Earth four times before docking, according to NASA. NASA Television will broadcast the docking beginning at 9:15 p.m. EST. About 11:30 p.m. EST, the hatches between the Soyuz capsule and the space station will open and the crew aboard the ISS will welcome the new crew to their new floating home.
A live stream of the preparations on Friday morning showed Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency have visiting the rocket and getting their belongings in place.
The crew members waiting on the ISS, Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova, are continuing their laboratory work, task list and maintenance, according to NASA.
Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti will stay on the orbital laboratory until mid-May 2015, according to NASA. Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova, who have been on the ISS since Sept. 25, will come home to Earth in March 2015, when Virts will take command of Expedition 43.
