Astronauts from America and Russia were successfully blasted into space today aboard a Soyuz rocket after a failed launch last October.
US astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch, as well as their Russian colleague Alexey Ovchinin launched at 3:14pm (ET) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with NASA officials reporting the rocket experienced 'a textbook ascent.'
'Everything is nominal on board and the crew is feeling very well,' an announcer said on a NASA livestream of the launch.
Just six hours from launch at 9:07pm (ET), the astronauts are set to dock at the International Space Station, where they'll stay for the next six and a half months.
The launch has been closely watched after the two men's space journey was cut short in October when a technical problem with their Soyuz rocket triggered a launch abort two minutes into the flight.
Both men escaped unharmed. It was the first such accident in Russia's post-Soviet history and a major setback for its once proud space industry.
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Astronauts from America and Russia were successfully blasted into space today aboard a Soyuz rocket after a failed launch last October. It took off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Speaking to reporters ahead of their six-month mission, flight commander Ovchinin said that some faulty components in the launch vehicle had been found and replaced this week.
'Yesterday they found some minor malfunctions,' the 47-year-old said on Wednesday.
He insisted that the launch vehicle was in good shape. 'There are no problems,' Ovchinin said.
Hague, 43, said he was looking forward to the flight -- his second attempt to get into space.
'I'm 100 percent confident in the rocket and the spaceship,' he said. The October abort was caused by a sensor damaged during the rocket's assembly.
Space expert Vadim Lukashevich said last-minute replacements were nothing out of the ordinary.
US astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch, as well as their Russian colleague Alexey Ovchinin launched at 3:14pm (ET) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, with NASA officials reporting the rocket experienced 'a textbook ascent'
'The Soyuz is an old but reliable machine,' he told AFP.
Russia's space industry has in recent years suffered a lot of mishaps including the loss of cargo spacecraft and numerous satellites.
Ovchinin, who spent six months at the ISS during a previous mission in 2016, has been keen to play down the drama of the October emergency landing.
The abort was 'a little disappointing' after preparations that lasted a year-and-a-half but also 'an interesting and needed experience' that tested the depth of the space programme's preparedness, he said.
Koch, Hague and Ovchinin's six-hour flight Thursday be closely watched for another reason too.
US astronauts Christina Hammock Koch (left) and Nick Hague (right) together with Russian colleague Alexey Ovchinin successfully blasted off Thursday on a mission to the ISS. The two men were on a Soyuz that was forced to abort in October two minutes after lift-off
Photographers take pictures as the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft carrying the crew formed of Aleksey Ovchinin of Russia, Nick Hague and Christina Koch of the U.S. blasts off to the International Space Station
SpaceX's successful test launch to the ISS of its Dragon vehicle has challenged an eight-year monopoly on travel to the space station enjoyed by Russia ever since NASA stopped launches of the Space Shuttle.
Speaking to reporters, the trio and their three-man backup crew stressed cooperation rather than competition following the Dragon mission, seen by some as the dawn of an era of commercial space travel driven by businessmen such as Elon Musk who owns SpaceX.
The Soyuz rocket is seen at dawn on launch site 1 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The three astronauts are now headed to the International Space Station, where they'll be for 6.5 months
Koch, a 40-year-old space rookie, called the SpaceX success a 'great example of what we've been doing for a very long time.'
'And that is cooperating among partners and making things that are very difficult look easy,' she said.
There has already been one successful manned launch to the ISS since the failed Soyuz mission.
The trio's arrival will return the orbiting laboratory's crew to six in all.
Two astronauts who survived an aborted Soyuz launch last year were preparing for blast-off Thursday aboard the giant Soyuz MS-12 rocket from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency blasted off to the orbiting outpost in December and are expected to greet their new crewmates early on Friday.
Duruing their mission McClain, Saint-Jacques, Hague and Koch are set to perform the first spacewalks of their careers.
This week in a lighter moment Hague offered an insight into the specifics of personal grooming aboard the ISS.
'In space, we'll use clippers attached to a vacuum device so that the hair particles don't float around or get stuck in our vent systems,' he wrote on Twitter.
The International Space Station -- a rare area of cooperation between Moscow and Washington -- has been orbiting the Earth at roughly 28,000 kilometres per hour since 1998.
Link hienalouca.comhttps://hienalouca.com/2019/03/14/we-have-lift-off-russian-soyuz-rocket-successfully-launches-three-astronauts-to-the-iss/
Main photo article Astronauts from America and Russia were successfully blasted into space today aboard a Soyuz rocket after a failed launch last October.
US astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch, as well as their Russian colleague Alexey Ovchinin launched at 3:14pm (ET) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
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