spacetoday.net: Soyuz delivers new crew to ISS

Posted: Sun, Apr 12, 2020, 10:30 AM ET (1430 GMT)
Soyuz MS-16 launch (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft successfully launched to the International Space Station Thursday. A Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:05 am EDT (0806 GMT) and placed the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft into orbit nine minutes later. The spacecraft docked with the Poisk module of the ISS at 10:13 am EDT (1413 GMT). On board the Soyuz spacecraft were Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and American astronaut Chris Cassidy. Prelaunch preparations for this mission were unusual given the addition of Ivanishin and Vagner to the crew in February, replacing Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin because of a medical issue, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that greatly reduced the number of people at the launch site.