Courtesy of AGI's Launch Notification e-mails. AGI's E-mails are sent after every launch and include key spacecraft information such as: the date, time, launch site, launcher, international number, name, and owner. Get more information on thousands of satellites and other vehicles by viewing STK models, animations, and our encyclopedic "Spacecraft Digest" database at www.agi.com/scdigest.
New Launch: 2010 October 7, 2311 UTC
Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Launcher: Soyuz-U
International Designator(s): 2010-052A
SSC Name Owner
37183 SOYUZ-TMA 01M CIS
"An upgraded Soyuz spacecraft carrying veteran shuttle astronaut Scott Kelly, Soyuz commander Alexander Kaleri and flight engineer Oleg Skripochka blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan late Thursday, kicking off a two-day flight to the International Space Station.
"Under a dark, pre-dawn sky, the launcher's main engines roared to life on time and the Soyuz rocket, trailing a sky-lighting plume of fiery exhaust, climbed away at 7:10:55 p.m. EDT (23:10:55 GMT)."
"Eight and a half minutes after liftoff, the upgraded Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft slipped into its planned preliminary orbit. Moments later, its two solar panels and antennas unfolded and Russian flight controllers said the spacecraft was in good shape as it set off after the International Space Station.
"If all goes well, Kaleri will oversee an automated docking at the upward-facing port of the Russian Poisk compartment atop the station's Zvezda command module around 8:02 p.m. Saturday (00:02 GMT Sunday)."
"The Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft features a variety of avionics and computer upgrades that are being flown for the first time. It was not immediately known if the unspecified issues referred to by Solovyov involved any of the new equipment."
"Kaleri, Kelly and Skripochka will join Expedition 25 commander Douglas Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin aboard the station, boosting the lab's crew size back to six. Wheelock, Walker and Yurchikhin are scheduled to depart at the end of November."
Source: Spaceflight Now, "Three men launched into space for half-year voyage"
