A trio of astronauts and cosmonauts will celebrate Thanksgiving by heading to the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev will travel to the ISS to join the Expedition 73 crew. They lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 4:27 a.m. ET aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft.
The International Space Station in low Earth orbit.
NASA
The launch and docking with the ISS will be streamed live on NASA+ and the space agency’s YouTube channel.
The journey to the ISS will take about three hours and two orbits. The Soyuz spacecraft will then automatically dock with the station at approximately 7:38 a.m. ET, followed by the hatch opening.
The trio will be joining NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman and Jonny Kim, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov, who are currently working and living aboard the ISS.
Williams and his cosmonaut teammates will spend about eight months aboard the ISS as members of ISS Expeditions 73 and 74. This will be Williams’ and Mikaev’s first spaceflight and Kud-Sverchkov’s second.
NASA says Williams will be conducting scientific research and technology demonstrations during his time on the station. Some of the experiments will include installing and testing a new modular workout system for long-duration missions, improving cryogenic fuel efficiency and growing semiconductor crystals in space. Williams will also help NASA develop new re-entry safety protocols for future missions.
Nov. 2 marked the 25th anniversary of continuous human habitation aboard the ISS.
