There’s some spaceflight action on tap on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27), but you’ll have to get up pretty early to catch it.
If all goes according to plan, the trio’s Soyuz spacecraft will reach the ISS a little over three hours after launch, docking with the orbiting outpost’s Rassvet module at about 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 GMT). NASA will cover that milestone as well, beginning at 6:45 a.m. EST (1145 GMT).
The hatches between the Soyuz and the ISS are expected to open around 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT). You can watch that activity, and the welcome ceremony that will follow it, beginning at 9:50 a.m. EST (1450 GMT).
The Thanksgiving launch will kick off the first spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov has been to orbit once before, living on the ISS from October 2020 to April 2021.
The trio will spend about eight months aboard the station as members of the orbiting outpost’s Expedition 73 and Expedition 74 missions.
“During his stay aboard station, Williams will conduct scientific research and technology demonstrations aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth,” NASA officials wrote in a statement.
“He will help install and test a new modular workout system for long-duration missions, support experiments to improve cryogenic fuel efficiency and grow semiconductor crystals in space, and assist NASA in designing new re-entry safety protocols to protect crews during future missions,” they added.
The Thanksgiving liftoff will be the second launch in three days headed for a crewed outpost in low Earth orbit. On Monday night (Nov. 24), China launched an uncrewed Shenzhou capsule, which will be the ride home for the three astronauts currently living on the Tiangong space station. That trio was without a lifeboat for 10 days; their own vehicle took home the previous Shenzhou astronauts, whose spacecraft was damaged by a space-debris strike.
