spacetoday.net: Soyuz ferries new crew to ISS

Posted: Fri, Sep 26, 2014, 8:58 AM ET (1258 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-14M approaching ISS (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new International Space Station crew members launched late Thursday and arrived at the station six hours later despite a problem with one of the spacecraft's solar panels. A Soyuz rocket launched the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft at 4:25 pm EDT Thursday (2025 GMT Thursday, 2:25 am local time Friday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft docked at the station's Poisk module at 10:11 pm EDT Thursday (0211 GMT Friday). The arrival took place as planned despite the fact that one of the Soyuz's two solar panels had not deployed. The panel did deploy shortly after docking, but officials said even if it had not, the Soyuz could have still performed a normal undocking and return to Earth at the end of its mission. The Soyuz brought to the station Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova and American astronaut Barry Wilmore for a six-month stay. Serova is the first female Russian cosmonaut to fly to the ISS.