Soyuz Rocket Rolls Out Before Sept. 2 Crew Launch

The Soyuz TMA-18M rocket sits atop its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in

 Kazakhstan after rolling out from the Integration Facility Monday morning. Credit: NASA TV

An international crew of three is getting ready for a two-day ride to the International Space Station. The Soyuz rocket that will lift them to space rolled out to its launch pad today at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Veteran cosmonaut Sergei Volkov will command the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft that will launch Sept. 2 at 12:37 a.m. EDT. Joining him for the trip to the station will be first time flyers Andreas Mogensen from the European Space Agency and Aidyn Aimbetov from Kazcosmos, the National Space Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan. NASA Television will broadcast the launch and docking activities live.
Onboard the orbital laboratory the One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko took part in a variety of human research experiments. They studied how microgravity affects vision and explored how spacecraft design influences crew performance.
NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui unpacked the Multipurpose Small Payload Rack-2 (MSPR-2) from the new HTV-5 resupply ship today.  The MSPR-2, which houses small science payloads, was installed in the Japanese Kibo laboratory module.