Soyuz Makes Record-Breaking


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less than six hours vs two days in the past.

Soyuz Makes Record-Breaking ?Fast Track? to Space Station

It was same day, freaky-fast delivery for the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft bringing the crew of Expedition 35/36 to the International Space Station. The expedited flight had the crew arriving even quicker than expected, in just 5 hours and 45 minutes after launch. The new abbreviated four-orbit rendezvous with the ISS uses a modified launch and docking profile for the Russian ships. It has been tried successfully with three Progress resupply vehicles, but this is the first time it has been used on a human flight.

Soyuz spacecraft takes express route to space station

Three astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station today, on a journey that will take less time than a flight from Halifax to Vancouver.

Instead of the usual two-day journey to the space station, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov and American astronaut Chris Cassidy are expected to get to their destination less than six hours after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m. ET Thursday, NASA reports.

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You're going to see more of this from the US commercial crew spacecraft too. Launch timing, orbital phasing, booster upgrades etc. allow the ball to be moved downfield.

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