Mission details:
Mission – MS-12
Opperator – Roscosmos
Launch date – March 14, 2019
Launch time – 19:15 UTC (15:15 EST) – live broadcast will begin at 18:00 UTC (14:00 EST)
Vehicle – Soyuz FG
Payload – Soyuz MS-12 with International Space Station Expedition 59/60 crew
Launch site – Baikonur Cosmodrome
Mission sequence:
Liftoff – 19:15 UTC (15:15 EST) March 14
Docking – 01:15 UTC March 15 (21:07 EST March 14)
Hatch Opening – 03:15 UTC March 15 (23:10 EST March 14)
The Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft is set to be launched aboard a Soyuz FG rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with three new International Space Station crew members. NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin will join Anne McClain (NASA), Oleg Kononenko (Roscosmos) and David Saint-Jacques (CSA). Together, the six will become the station’s 59th Expedition crew.
For two of the crew launching aboard the Soyuz MS-12, today’s mission to the ISS will be a second chance. Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin launched aboard the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft on October 11, 2018. Following a nominal liftoff, an issue with one of the four strapon boosters forced an emergency abort with pair returning to Earth in a ballistic descent mode.
During their time aboard the station, the ISS Expedition 59 crew is set to conduct the first all-female spacewalk. NASA’s Anne McClain and Christina Koch will “complete the upgrades to two station power channels” on March 29. Despite the historic event falling on women’s month, NASA officials have confirmed it wasn’t planned and was merely a happy accident.
