LIVE: Soyuz-FG launch with Soyuz TMA-15M - November 23, 2014

[jacqmans]

November 12, 2014.
 Soyuz TMA-15M crews initiated a final training phase

Today backup crew of the Soyuz TMA-15M transportation spacecraft namely Oleg Dmitrievich Kononenko (Roscosmos, Russia), Kjell Norwood Lindgren (NASA, USA) and Kimiya Yui (JAXA, Japan) arrived to the Baikonur launch site.

The prime and backup crews for the ISS-42/43 initiated a final training phase in the processing facility.

Anton Nikolaevich Shkaplerov (Roscosmos, Russia), Terry Virts (NASA, USA), Samanta Cristoforetti (ESA, Italy), Oleg Dmitrievich Kononenko (Roscosmos, Russia), Kjell Norwood Lindgren (NASA, USA) and Kimiya Yui (JAXA, Japan) had training sessions onboard the spacecraft, with laser ranger and satellite phone, acquainted with the onboard documentation and the content of cargoes launched and also made a fitting of the Sokol-KB space suits and individual liners.

Today a meeting of Technical Management was held where a decision to fill the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft with propellant components and compressed gases was accepted.

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss42/photo_11-12.html

[jacqmans]

http://www.gctc.ru/main.php?id=2785

[Nicolas PILLET]

Backup crew was one day late, because of a problem with their plane.

http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/news/25608/

[Lewis007]

Video of first fit check

[Satori]

November 14, 2014.

Fuelled SC Soyuz TMA-15M was delivered to the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility

At Baikonur launch site the preparations continue for the launch of Soyuz TMA-15M transport manned vehicle under the International Space Station program.

Soyuz TMA-15M transport manned vehicle fuelled with propellant components and compressed gases was delivered to the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility for final processing operations.

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss42/photo_11-14.html

[jacqmans]

[Targeteer]

Indications are that the crew has been in training to long and needs to launch--soon

[Satori]

November 15, 2014.

A transfer compartment was docked with SC Soyuz TMA-15M

At Baikonur launch site the preparations continue for the launch of Soyuz TMA-15M transport manned vehicle under the International Space Station program.

A transfer compartment was docked with Soyuz TMA-15M transport manned vehicle in the Spacecraft Assembly and Testing Facility.

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss42/photo_11-15.html

[Satori]

November 17, 2014.

Designers inspection of SC Soyuz TMA-15M and payload shroud roll were performed

At Baikonur launch site the preparations continue for the launch of Soyuz TMA-15M transport manned vehicle under the International Space Station program.

Designers inspection of the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft was completed.

Payload shroud roll on to the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft was performed.

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss42/photo_11-17.html

[Artyom.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNNRo6QwFfI&feature=youtu.be&a

[jacqmans]

Official Prime and back-up crew photo

[jacqmans]

November 17, 2014
NASA Television Coverage Set for Next International Space Station Crew Launch


NASA Television will provide extensive coverage of the Sunday, Nov. 23, launch from Kazakhstan of three crew members of Expedition 42/43, as they begin their planned six-hour journey to the International Space Station. NASA TV coverage will start at 3 p.m. EST and will include video of the pre-launch activities leading up to spacecraft boarding.

Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23 (3:01 a.m. Monday, Nov. 24 in Baikonur).

The trio will ride to orbit in a Soyuz spacecraft, which will rendezvous with the space station and dock after four orbits of Earth. Docking to the Russian segment's Rassvet module will take place at 9:53 p.m. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 9:15 p.m.

Around 11:30 p.m., hatches between the Soyuz and the station will be opened. Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, as well as Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos, will greet Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti. Hatch opening coverage begins on NASA TV at 11 p.m.

Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti will remain aboard the station until mid-May 2015. Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova, who have been aboard since Sept. 25, will return to Earth in early March, leaving Virts in command of Expedition 43.

For the full schedule of prelaunch, launch and docking coverage, visit:

 

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For b-roll and other media resources, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/stationnews

Follow the space station crew members on Instagram:

http://instagram.com/iss

Follow the space station via Twitter at:

http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

[jacqmans]

http://www.federalspace.ru/21118/

[Joachim]

Thank you very much for the crew portraits.
Are the six individual portraits available?

[Satori]

Open day for the press http://www.roscosmos.ru/21122/ (in Russian)

[Satori]

Thank you very much for the crew portraits.
Are the six individual portraits available?

[Joachim]

Thanks. And in hi res???

[jacqmans]

November 19, 2014.
 A check inspection of the SC Soyuz TMA-15M was performed

At Baikonur launch site the preparations continue for the launch of Soyuz TMA-15M transport manned vehicle under the International Space Station program.

In the assembly/test building primary (Anton Nikolaevich SHKAPLEROV (Roscosmos, Russia), Terry VIRTS  (NASA, USA) and Samanta CRISTOFORETTI (ESA, Italy)) and backup (Oleg Dmitrievich KONONENKO (Roscosmos, Russia), Kjell Norwood LINDGREN  (NASA, USA) and Kimiya YUI (JAXA, Japan)) crews of the Soyuz TMA-15M transportation spacecraft made a check inspection of the spacecraft in the launch configuration.

http://www.energia.ru/en/iss/iss42/photo_11-19.html

[jacqmans]

[jacqmans]

Samantha Cristoforetti:
L-4 Today we raised our Soyuz TMA-15M flag at cosmodrome space museum in Baikonur!