MOSCOW (AP) — One American and two Russians blasted off Friday aboard a Russian spacecraft from a spaceport in Kazakhstan on a quick trip to the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. O’Hara will spend six months at the station while Kononenko and Chub will spend a year there.
The trio was supposed to fly to the space station last spring, but their original capsule was needed as a replacement for another crew. That crew — also two Russians and an American — will ride it home later this month. Their stay was extended from six months to a year when their Soyuz capsule developed a coolant leak while parked at the station.
It’s the first spaceflight for O’Hara and Chub, while mission commander Kononenko is on his fifth trip to the orbiting outpost.
The crew was due to arrive three hours later, joining seven station residents from U.S., Russia, Denmark and Japan.
When they get to the International Space Station, their module will dock and when the hatches open they will be met by seven astronauts and cosmonauts from the U.S., Russia, Denmark and Japan. Later in September, three of the ISS crew will depart, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who will have been there for more than a year.
According to NASA, when mission commander Kononenko finishes his tour to space in a year’s time, he will hold the record for the person who has spent the longest amount of time — more than a thousand days — in space.
