Three new members for the International Space Station will launch Friday, July 28 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Astronauts Randy Bresnik of NASA, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of European Space Agency will spend more than four months on the orbital complex. Live coverage of the launch will begin at 10:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and NASA'S website.
The crew will spend six hours in the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft after launching before docking in the space station's Rassvet module at 6 p.m. Live coverage of the docking will begin at 5:15 p.m. through NASA TV.
The crew will be welcomed onboard by expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer of NASA. Coverage of will begin at 7p.m. which will include a welcoming ceremony.
The eventual crew of six will work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the International Space Station.