The manned transportation spacecraft of the new modification Soyuz MS-04 with the next long-duration expedition crew has successfully docked to the International Space Station (ISS).
The spacecraft delivered ROSCOSMOS cosmonaut Fedor YURCHIKHIN and NASA astronaut Jack FISHER to the ISS.
The launch vehicle Soyuz-FG with spacecraft Soyuz MS-04 was launched from Site No. 1 “Gagarin’s launch pad” of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 20 at 10:13:43 Moscow time. The spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle at the expected time and started to approach the ISS using a “four-orbit” rendezvous capability.
The vehicle reached the station after about six hours of the free flight. The docking with Mini Research Module (MRM2) Poisk was performed in the automatic mode. The contact of the vehicles was detected at 16:18:34 Moscow time and the mechanical capture was performed at - 16:18:34 Moscow time. The rendezvous and docking used the improved RF system Kurs-NA.
After carrying out preparatory operations (taking spacesuits off and their drying, leak check of compartments and interface seals, pressure equalization, etc.) between the spacecraft and the ISS the transfer hatches will be open and the newly arrived crewmembers will transfer onboard the station. There they will be met by ROSCOSMOS cosmonaut Oleg NOVITSKY, NASA astronaut Peggy WHITSON and ESA astronaut Thomas PESQUET.
During the stay on the ISS the ISS-51 and ISS-52 Expeditions crew will have to perform routine operations to maintain the ISS in an operational status and outfit it with equipment. Planned are also operations with cargo transport vehicles of Progress MS series, Cygnus and Dragon; preparation for return to the ground of two ISS-50/51 Expedition crewmembers by Soyuz MS-03 and docking of Soyuz MS-05 carrying the crew of the ISS-52/53 Expedition to Mini Research Module Rassvet (MRM1).
During the ISS-51 and ISS-52 Expeditions it is planned to implement 531 sessions of 62 experiments each. Sixty experiments were started in the previous increments, two experiments (“Terminator”, “IMPAKT”) are new ones. The applied scientific research program envisages biomedical, geophysical, biotechnological and other experiments. At the moment the planned duration of the crew flight is 136 days.
