Russia Launches ISS Journey, Cutting Time by Half

Date: 14 October 2020 - 22:00

News ID: ۸۳۸۷۶

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AFP) -- Two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut blasted off on a fast-track journey to the International Space Station Wednesday, in the first such launch aboard a Russian capsule since SpaceX’s game-changing debut manned flight from US soil.
Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos and NASA’s Kathleen Rubins launched from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0545 GMT on Wednesday.
A NASA TV commentator said everything was normal, citing communications between Russian mission control and the crew, while Roscosmos said the capsule had successfully gone into orbit.
Their journey was the first manned flight to the ISS to last just over three hours before docking -- a new fast-track profile that takes half the time of standard trips to the orbital lab.
Only an unmanned Progress cargo space ship has previously used this profile, which requires just two orbits before docking.
Stringent precautions, including tighter quarantine and mask-wearing before launch, have been taken due to the coronavirus pandemic but the astronauts and space officials have rejected any concerns about a risk of infection on the station.
The launch is sandwiched between two SpaceX launches -- the first manned spaceflights to the ISS under NASA’s aegis since 2011.
The emergence of private players SpaceX and Boeing -- part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program -- has fueled talk of a new "space race” between a number of countries.
But the men and women that fly to the space station have played down talk of competition and focused instead on space travel’s ability to bring rival nations together for a common cause.
Ryzhikov, 46-year-old former military pilot, has spent 173 days in space compared to Rubins’ 115 while Kud-Sverchkov, 37, is flying for the first time.
On the eve of the launch, Ryzhikov expressed sadness over ongoing fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and said he hoped the example of the ISS could help "spread love, friendship and comradeship”.
The ISS, which has been permanently occupied since 2000, has been a rare example of cooperation between Moscow and Washington, but the project may be entering its final decade.