Latest news with #Soyuz2.1a
CBS News
08-04-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Rocket carrying NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, 2 Russian cosmonauts docks with space station
Jonny Kim, a former Navy SEAL, Harvard Medical School graduate and now a NASA astronaut blasted off with two cosmonaut crewmates aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket early Tuesday, chased down the International Space Station and moved in for a picture-perfect docking three hours after liftoff. With veteran commander Sergey Ryzhikov, 50, at the controls, flanked on the left by rookie cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky, 32, and on the right by Kim, 41, the Soyuz MS-27/73S ferry ship rocketed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:47 a.m. EDT (10:47 a.m. local time). "The crew is feeling good, everything is nominal," Ryzhikov periodically assured Russian flight controllers as the rocket climbed toward orbit. Eight minutes and 46 seconds later, the third stage engine of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket shut down and the crew ship was released to fly on its own, followed moments later by deployment of its two solar panels and navigation antennas. The ferry ship then carried out an automated rendezvous with the space station, moving in for docking at the multiport Prichal module at 4:57 a.m. as the two spacecraft sailed 260 miles above western Russia. "Congratulations, Sergey, congratulations on your arrival at the International Space Station," Russian mission control radioed. After extensive leak checks to verify an airtight structural seal, hatches were opened at 7:28 a.m., allowing Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim to float into the station. Welcoming them aboard were Soyuz MS-26/72S crewmates Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, along with SpaceX Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. "It was the trip of a lifetime and an honor to be here," Kim told flight controllers during a traditional postdocking video conference. Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim are replacing Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit, who were launched to the ISS on Sept. 11 and who plan to return to Earth aboard their own Soyuz on April 19 to wrap up a 219-day stay in space. The Crew 10 fliers, launched on March 14 , replaced their Crew 9 predecessors — Nick Hague, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov and Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams — who returned to Earth on March 18 . Rotating space station crews have typically carried out, on average, six-month tours of duty aboard the lab complex. But starting with Kim's flight, the Russians are increasing Soyuz durations to eight months to gather more data on the effects of long-term stays in space. As such, Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim are expected to return to Earth around Dec. 9. In a pre-flight interview with CBS News, Jonathan Yong "Jonny" Kim, the son of South Korean immigrants and a father of three, said he first heard of the Navy's SEALs when he was 16 years old. He eventually joined the elite corps and went on to participate in more than 100 combat operations as a member of SEAL Team Three in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "To me, it is the strongest calling I've ever had in my life, even to this day," he said. "I've had additional callings in life. But it was really that first calling I had to be a SEAL that I will remember for the rest of my life. Because it was the first time that I felt I had a purpose, and I had a dream." That dream was to serve as a warrior. "Back then, I used to have a really narrow focus on that," he said. "But to me, a warrior is someone that is in continued pursuit of excellence in their craft. It doesn't have to be combat. It can be in medicine. It can be as a NASA astronaut. It can be in politics. It can be anything. "But it's someone who's passionate and in pursuit of continued excellence. And the reason why it just resonated so well with me is because it was everything I wasn't at the time, but I wanted to be." Kim said he had "some terrible moments" in combat and ended up "just really burnt out. I was very burnt out from the combat, from the war and the loss. ... I needed a way to continue serving, and it seemed logical that medicine would be that vehicle." Already a veteran combat medic, Kim was accepted in Harvard Medical School. Along the way, he said, he "probably went a little too extreme in ensuring that previous successes did not set myself up for the future." "I ensured that the people I worked with in the hospital didn't know I was previously a SEAL, because I wanted my patients, I wanted my colleagues to think of me as dependable and proficient and a good physician. Not because I used to be a SEAL, but because that's who I was." Then, as he was wrapping up medical school and preparing for his residency, Kim watched the initial test flight of NASA's Orion moonship in 2014 on YouTube and became a self-described "space nerd." He met physician and former astronaut Scott Parazynski, who encouraged him to apply to NASA for astronaut training. Out of 18,000 applications for the class of 2017, NASA chose 12, including Kim. He said learning Russian was the most challenging aspect of training to fly aboard a Soyuz, but added that his crewmates spoke excellent English and had gone out of their way to welcome him aboard. "We are friends. I mean, we're very, very professional," Kim said. "We work well together. ... I've had Alexey and Sergey over for dinner and they've done the same thing for me. So our relationships are personal and there's a lot of trust and friendship there. As for being assigned to a Soyuz flight, riding a vehicle that's been around for decades as opposed to the roomier touchscreen-equipped SpaceX Crew Dragon, Kim said he was more than happy to fly with the Russians. "I just love technology (but) there's also something to be said about reliability, or as the saying goes, 'If it's not broke, don't fix it,'" he said. "The amount of testing and the reliability the Soyuz has shown over decades is unsurpassed and is absolutely admirable." During the course of his stay aboard the station, Kim said, he hopes to venture outside the lab for a spacewalk at some point, but added he would be more that happy to serve in any capacity. "The modern day astronaut is a jack of all trades," he told CBS News. "You know, we train to do spacewalks. We train to support space walks, train to do research. One day we might be plumbers or mechanics, we might be technicians repairing a radio or we might be pipetting various fluids into other fluids for research. "So it's kind of all of the above, whatever the demands that the space station need at a time."
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Navy SEAL-doctor-astronaut lifts off with cosmonauts on Russian flight to ISS (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A Navy SEAL, medical doctor and NASA astronaut lifted off for an eight-month mission on the International Space Station — and that was just one of the three crewmembers on the trip into Earth orbit. Jonny Kim of the United States, together with Russia's Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, launched on Tuesday (April 8) as the Soyuz MS-27 crew. Riding atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket, they ascended from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:47 a.m. EDT (0547 GMT or 10:47 a.m. local time). "I am so proud and excited," said Kim at the crew's pre-launch press conference on Monday (April 7). "We have come together, against all odds, and worked to [depart] on this journey." Following a two-orbit rendezvous, Soyuz MS-27 is expected to autonomously dock with the station's Prichal node at about 5:04 a.m. EDT (0904 GMT) on Tuesday. Related: Baikonur Cosmodrome: Facts about the Russia-run launch complex Once the hatches are open, Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim will join the Expedition 72 crew, led by cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin as the station's commander, along with flight engineers Kirill Peskov and Ivan Vagner of the Russian space agency Roscosmos; NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers, Anne McClain and Don Pettit; and Takuya Onishi with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim, together with Ayers, McClain, Peskov and Onishi, will then form the Expedition 73 crew with Onishi in command, when Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit return to Earth April 19 on board Soyuz MS-26. During their time in space together, Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim will help oversee the arrival and departure of visiting cargo vehicles, assist in the upkeep of the station's systems and take part in hundreds of experiments. They may also go out on spacewalks (extravehicular activities, or EVAs), including two EVAs planned by Russian flight controllers to deploy experiments and U.S.-planned outings to continue the upgrade of the station's solar arrays and service the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a particle physics detector. "I really hope that I get to contribute to a spacewalk," said Kim while answering media questions live on NASA's streaming service. "I think physically that is one of the harder things that we get to do, and I am very interested in physical and mental challenges." "It's something that I, as well as a lot of other astronauts, have worked a lot ... to prepare for, and so hopefully I can put that training to use," he said. That Kim, 41, is attracted to physical and mental challenges speaks to his background as a U.S. Navy SEAL and a medical doctor. This is his first spaceflight since being selected to become a NASA astronaut with the agency's 22nd class of astronauts in 2017. "I am seen as maybe unique, but I am with an entire class of amazing people with amazing backgrounds. And when I think of my personal background, I just think of myself being in the right place at the right time and having opportunities that anyone else would have grabbed if they were in those same shoes," Kim said in an interview with Related stories: — 3 spaceflyers arrive at the ISS aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft — Former Navy Seal Jonny Kim will be 1st Korean-American astronaut on ISS — International Space Station: Everything you need to know about the orbital laboratory Kim is the third SEAL to become an astronaut, and all three will have now served on the International Space Station. William "Bill" Shepherd led the station's first expedition crew in 2000, and Chris Cassidy's second of two long-duration stays concluded just before the orbiting outpost marked 20 years of continuous human occupancy. Kim will be in space for the start of the 25th year on Nov. 2, 2025. "John F. Kennedy, who was responsible for initiating our race to the moon, is also the same president who commissioned the United States Navy Seals in 1962. It means a lot to me to be a part of that," said Kim. "I certainly hope to follow in the tradition that Bill started and Chris continued." Related: Photos: John F. Kennedy's NASA legacy Ryzhikov, 50, is returning for a third stay on the ISS. A pilot in the Russian Air Force, he became a cosmonaut in 2006 and then was part of the expedition 49/50 and 63/64 station crews. He began this flight having already logged 358 days off the planet. Zubritsky, 32, is on his first space mission. Selected to train as a cosmonaut in 2018, he will be the sixth cosmonaut to serve as a "special correspondent" for the Russian state-run news agency TASS during his time in Earth orbit. The Soyuz MS-27 crew, led by commander Ryzhikov, is flying under the call sign "Favor." Their zero-gravity indicator was a small angel holding a horn, and their crew insignia includes two nods to spaceflight anniversaries: 60 years since the world's first spacewalk in March 1965, and 50 years since the first joint mission between the U.S. and Russia, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, in July 1975. "Soyuz is a Russian word for 'union.' It's also the name of their space vehicle, and I think it's the perfect word to describe the collaboration that we've had between our two countries for many, many decades, and certainly for the entire existence of the space station," said Kim in a media interview. "At the end of the day, we are all humans doing our parts, trying to make this world a better place." Soyuz MS-27 is Russia's 73rd spacecraft in its class to launch for the station since 2000 and the 156th Soyuz to fly since 1967. Follow on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA astronaut, 2 Russian cosmonauts blast off on flight to space station
Jonny Kim, a former Navy SEAL, Harvard Medical School graduate and now a NASA astronaut blasted off with two cosmonaut crewmates aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket early Tuesday to head for an eight-month stay aboard the International Space Station. With veteran commander Sergey Ryzhikov, 50, at the controls, flanked on the left by rookie cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky, 32, and on the right by Kim, 41, the Soyuz MS-27/73S ferry ship rocketed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:47 a.m. EDT (10:47 a.m. local time). "The crew is feeling good, everything is nominal," Ryzhikov periodically assured Russian flight controllers as the rocket climbed toward orbit. Eight minutes and 45 seconds later, the third stage engine of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket shut down and the crew ship was released to fly on its own, followed moments later by deployment of its two solar panels and navigation antennas. The ferry ship was expected to catch up with the space station in a little more than three hours, moving in for docking at the multi-port Prichal module a few minutes past 5 a.m. After extensive leak checks to verify an airtight structural seal, hatches will be opened around 7:20 a.m. Standing by to welcome them aboard will be Soyuz MS-26/72S crewmates Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, along with SpaceX Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim are replacing Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit, who were launched to the ISS on Sept. 11 and who plan to return to Earth aboard their own Soyuz on April 19 to wrap up a 219-day stay in space. The Crew 10 fliers, launched on March 14, replaced their Crew 9 predecessors -- Nick Hague, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov and Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams -- who returned to Earth on March 18. Rotating space station crews have typically carried out, on average, six-month tours of duty aboard the lab complex. But starting with Kim's flight, the Russians are increasing Soyuz durations to eight months to gather more data on the effects of long-term stays in space. As such, Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim are expected to return to Earth around Dec. 9. In a pre-flight interview with CBS News, Jonathan Yong "Jonny" Kim, the son of South Korean immigrants and a father of three, said he first heard of the Navy's SEALs when he was 16 years old. He eventually joined the elite corps and went on to participate in more than 100 combat operations as a member of SEAL Team Three in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "To me, it is the strongest calling I've ever had in my life, even to this day," he said. "I've had additional callings in life. But it was really that first calling I had to be a SEAL that I will remember for the rest of my life. Because it was the first time that I felt I had a purpose, and I had a dream." That dream was to serve as a warrior. "Back then, I used to have a really narrow focus on that," he said. "But to me, a warrior is someone that is in continued pursuit of excellence in their craft. It doesn't have to be combat. It can be in medicine. It can be as a NASA astronaut. It can be in politics. It can be anything. "But it's someone who's passionate and in pursuit of continued excellence. And the reason why it just resonated so well with me is because it was everything I wasn't at the time, but I wanted to be." Kim said he had "some terrible moments" in combat and ended up "just really burnt out. I was very burnt out from the combat, from the war and the loss. ... I needed a way to continue serving, and it seemed logical that medicine would be that vehicle." Already a veteran combat medic, Kim was accepted in Harvard Medical School. Along the way, he said, he "probably went a little too extreme in ensuring that previous successes did not set myself up for the future." "I ensured that the people I worked with in the hospital didn't know I was previously a SEAL, because I wanted my patients, I wanted my colleagues to think of me as dependable and proficient and a good physician. Not because I used to be a SEAL, but because that's who I was." Then, as he was wrapping up medical school and preparing for his residency, Kim watched the initial test flight of NASA's Orion moonship in 2015 on YouTube and became a self-described "space nerd." He met physician and former astronaut Scott Parazynski, who encouraged him to apply to NASA for astronaut training. Out of 18,000 applications for the class of 2017, NASA chose 12, including Kim. He said learning Russian was the most challenging aspect of training to fly aboard a Soyuz, but added that his crewmates spoke excellent English and had gone out of their way to welcome him aboard. "We are friends. I mean, we're very, very professional," Kim said. "We work well together. ... I've had Alexey and Sergey over for dinner and they've done the same thing for me. So our relationships are personal and there's a lot of trust and friendship there. As for being assigned to a Soyuz flight, riding a vehicle that's been around for decades as opposed to the roomier touchscreen-equipped SpaceX Crew Dragon, Kim said he was more than happy to fly with the Russians. "I just love technology (but) there's also something to be said about reliability, or as the saying goes, 'If it's not broke, don't fix it,'" he said. "The amount of testing and the reliability the Soyuz has shown over decades is unsurpassed and is absolutely admirable." During the course of his stay aboard the station, Kim said, he hopes to venture outside the lab for a spacewalk at some point, but added he would be more that happy to serve in any capacity. "The modern day astronaut is a jack of all trades," he told CBS News. "You know, we train to do spacewalks. We train to support space walks, train to do research. One day we might be plumbers or mechanics, we might be technicians repairing a radio or we might be pipetting various fluids into other fluids for research. "So it's kind of all of the above, whatever the demands that the space station need at a time." Inside the booming, bourbon-driven barrel business | 60 Minutes Supreme Court pauses order mandating return of Maryland man deported to El Salvador Greenlanders respond to Trump: "It will never be for sale"
CBS News
08-04-2025
- Science
- CBS News
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, 2 Russian cosmonauts blast off on flight to space station
Jonny Kim, a former Navy SEAL, Harvard Medical School graduate and now a NASA astronaut blasted off with two cosmonaut crewmates aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket early Tuesday to head for an eight-month stay aboard the International Space Station. With veteran commander Sergey Ryzhikov, 50, at the controls, flanked on the left by rookie cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky, 32, and on the right by Kim, 41, the Soyuz MS-27/73S ferry ship rocketed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:47 a.m. EDT (10:47 a.m. local time). "The crew is feeling good, everything is nominal," Ryzhikov periodically assured Russian flight controllers as the rocket climbed toward orbit. Eight minutes and 45 seconds later, the third stage engine of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket shut down and the crew ship was released to fly on its own, followed moments later by deployment of its two solar panels and navigation antennas. The ferry ship was expected to catch up with the space station in a little more than three hours, moving in for docking at the multi-port Prichal module a few minutes past 5 a.m. After extensive leak checks to verify an airtight structural seal, hatches will be opened around 7:20 a.m. Standing by to welcome them aboard will be Soyuz MS-26/72S crewmates Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, along with SpaceX Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim are replacing Ovchinin, Vagner and Pettit, who were launched to the ISS on Sept. 11 and who plan to return to Earth aboard their own Soyuz on April 19 to wrap up a 219-day stay in space. The Crew 10 fliers, launched on March 14 , replaced their Crew 9 predecessors -- Nick Hague, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov and Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams -- who returned to Earth on March 18 . Rotating space station crews have typically carried out, on average, six-month tours of duty aboard the lab complex. But starting with Kim's flight, the Russians are increasing Soyuz durations to eight months to gather more data on the effects of long-term stays in space. As such, Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim are expected to return to Earth around Dec. 9. In a pre-flight interview with CBS News, Jonathan Yong "Jonny" Kim, the son of South Korean immigrants and a father of three, said he first heard of the Navy's SEALs when he was 16 years old. He eventually joined the elite corps and went on to participate in more than 100 combat operations as a member of SEAL Team Three in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. "To me, it is the strongest calling I've ever had in my life, even to this day," he said. "I've had additional callings in life. But it was really that first calling I had to be a SEAL that I will remember for the rest of my life. Because it was the first time that I felt I had a purpose, and I had a dream." That dream was to serve as a warrior. "Back then, I used to have a really narrow focus on that," he said. "But to me, a warrior is someone that is in continued pursuit of excellence in their craft. It doesn't have to be combat. It can be in medicine. It can be as a NASA astronaut. It can be in politics. It can be anything. "But it's someone who's passionate and in pursuit of continued excellence. And the reason why it just resonated so well with me is because it was everything I wasn't at the time, but I wanted to be." Kim said he had "some terrible moments" in combat and ended up "just really burnt out. I was very burnt out from the combat, from the war and the loss. ... I needed a way to continue serving, and it seemed logical that medicine would be that vehicle. Already a veteran combat medic, Kim was accepted in Harvard's medical school. Along the way, "I probably went a little too extreme in ensuring that previous successes did not set myself up for the future." "I ensured that the people I worked with in the hospital didn't know I was previously a SEAL, because I wanted my patients, I wanted my colleagues to think of me as dependable and proficient and a good physician. Not because I used to be a SEAL, but because that's who I was." Then, as he was wrapping up medical school and preparing for his residency, Kim watched the initial test flight of NASA's Orion moonship in 2015 on YouTube and became a self-described "space nerd." He met physician and former astronaut Scott Parazynski, who encouraged him to apply to NASA for astronaut training. Out of 18,000 applications for the class of 2017, NASA chose 12, including Kim. He said learning Russian was the most challenging aspect of training to fly aboard a Soyuz, but added that his crewmates spoke excellent English and had gone out of their way to welcome him aboard. "We are friends. I mean, we're very, very professional," Kim said. "We work well together. ... I've had Alexey and Sergey over for dinner and they've done the same thing for me. So our relationships are personal and there's a lot of trust and friendship there. As for being assigned to a Soyuz flight, riding a vehicle that's been around for decades as opposed to the roomier touchscreen-equipped SpaceX Crew Dragon, Kim said he was more than happy to fly with the Russians. "I just love technology (but) there's also something to be said about reliability, or as the saying goes, if it's not broke, don't fix it," he said. "The amount of testing and the reliability the Soyuz has shown over decades is unsurpassed and is absolutely admirable." During the course of his stay aboard the station, Kim said he hoped to venture outside the lab for a spacewalk at some point, but added he would be more that happy to serve in any capacity. "The modern day astronaut is a jack of all trades," he told CBS News. "You know, we train to do spacewalks. We train to support space walks, train to do research. One day we might be plumbers or mechanics, we might be technicians repairing a radio or we might be pipetting various fluids into other fluids for research. "So it's kind of all of the above, whatever the demands that the space station need at a time."
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Russian rocket puts Progress cargo spacecraft in orbit en route to ISS
(Reuters) - A Russian booster rocket placed the Progress MS-30 spacecraft in Earth orbit early on Friday, sending it on its way to the International Space Station with a cargo of equipment and supplies, Russian news agencies reported. The agencies, referring to a live broadcast by the Roscosmos space agency, said the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket and went into orbit at 12:33 a.m. Moscow time (2133 GMT on Thursday). The spacecraft is to orbit the Earth 34 times before docking with the ISS on Sunday. Officials said it was carrying 2.5 metric tons of cargo, including instruments and equipment for the station's systems, clothing, food, medication and fuel. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Among the items on board is a new spacesuit to enable the station's crew to go out into open space. A crew of seven is currently aboard the ISS, comprised of three Russian cosmonauts and four U.S. astronauts.
