A Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crew on board successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday after blasting off from Kazakhstan, NASA said, launching a year-long mission on the orbiting outpost.
The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft’s crew included a US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, who will be the first to spend an entire year on the ISS.
The successful docking occurred after the Soyuz took off without a glitch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 22:42pm on Friday, Russian space agency officials said.
Photo: EPA
The hatch opened about two hours later, once the pressure between the two space vessels had equalized.
The three exchanged enthusiastic hugs with crew members already on board the ISS after the hatch opened.
NASA flight engineer Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled together to spend a total of 342 days aboard the ISS, while the third crew member, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, is to spend the usual period of six months.
Kelly, aged 51, and 54-year-old Kornienko are due to take part in the extended mission to test the effects of long-term space missions on the human body.
The trip marks the longest amount of time that two people will live continuously at the ISS, though a few cosmonauts spent a year to 14 months at the Russian space station Mir in the 1990s.
“This is the first time we’re doing it as an international partnership, which I think is one of the great success stories of the International Space Station,” Kelly said at a news conference in Baikonur ahead of the launch.
He said that the experiment could prove vital towards planning future international missions, including to Mars.
“If we ever go beyond low Earth orbit again, perhaps to Mars, because of the cost and the complexity, it will most likely be an international mission, so I see this as a stepping stone to that,” Kelly said .
The physical effects of a year in space will be closely monitored by doctors on the ground in an unprecedented study of how the human body withstands the rigors of spaceflight before humans plan to journey to Mars.
NASA said that the mission was key to planning a future trip to Mars, as it would provide valuable research.
“Scott Kelly’s mission is critical to advancing the administration’s plan to send humans on a journey to Mars,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said. “We’ll gain new, detailed insights on the ways long-duration spaceflight affects the human body.”
Kelly’s twin brother Mark, a retired US astronaut who has flown to the ISS four times, is part of the experiment and is set to undergo regular health checks on Earth so doctors can compare the brothers’ vital signs.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2