We are making apologize for not posting news for such a long period. Our specialists went to Baikonur spaceport to watch new Soyuz MS spacecraft launch.
On July 4, Monday, according to the working schedule the rocket was rolled out from the integration building and erected on the launchpad.
On July 5, Wednesday, both prime (Anatoly Ivanishin, Roscosmos, Takuya Onishi, JAXA, Kathleen Rubins, NASA) and back-up (Oleg Novitsky, Roscosmos, Peggy Whitson, NASA, Thomas Pesquet, ESA) held international press-conference in Cosmonaut hotel of pad 17 answering journalists questions.
The launch was scheduled for July 07, 07.36, local time ( 04.36, Moscow time). Six hours before the launch cosmonauts left the hotel for pad #254 where they put on their spacesuits and held a closed press conference attended by family members and authorities only. After ready-to-go report to the State Commission the prime crew went to the launchpad to take seats inside Soyuz.
528 seconds after successful launch Soyuz entered the orbit. The docking was planned for July 09.
After pressure equalization the new arrived crew opened the hatches joined their colleagues onboard the ISS.
