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28 March 2024

Short cut to space: From earth to ISS in 6 hrs

Published
By Reuters

A spacecraft carrying two Russians and a US astronaut lifted off early on Friday for what was scheduled to be the quickest trip ever from Earth to the International Space Station (ISS).

With Nasa astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin aboard, the Soyuz TMA-08M blasted off at 2:43 a.m. local time (2043 GMT on Thursday) from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
 
The capsule was due to dock at the ISS, a $100 billion research outpost that orbits about 250 miles (400km) above Earth, less than six hours after launch. All previous ISS crews took at least two days to reach the station.
 
The shorter trip requires two big manoeuvring burns within 90 minutes after lift-off. The space station docking is scheduled for 0232 GMT on Friday. 
 
 "From a technical point of view, we feel pretty comfortable with this. All of the procedures are very similar to what we do in a two-day process and we've trained it a number of times," Cassidy said at a pre-launch press conference shown on Nasa TV. 
 
The shorter trip was tested during three Russian cargo flights to the station before being approved for use on a crewed flight.