The Russian Soyuz spacecraft that will carry three new crew members on an express trip to the International Space Station stands poised for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA, Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft at 3:57 a.m. MYT Thursday (1:57 a.m. Kazakh time) to begin a six-hour, four-orbit trek to the space station.

 

Live NASA Television coverage of the launch begins at 3 a.m.

 

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NASA TV coverage will resume at 9 a.m. with the automated approach by the Soyuz to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Rassvet Mini-Research Module-1 for docking at 9:48 a.m.

 

Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, who have been aboard the orbiting complex since March 28, will welcome the new trio of Expedition 40 flight engineers aboard when the hatches open at 11:25 a.m.  

 

Afterward, the six-man crew will move into the Zvezda service module so the station’s three newest residents can receive congratulatory calls from family members and VIPs gathered in Baikonur.

 

Coverage of the hatch opening and welcome ceremony begins on NASA TV at 11 a.m.

 

The crew will team up for a safety review to discuss roles and responsibilities before wrapping up the day’s activities aboard the station. The entire Expedition 40 crew will have an off-duty day Friday to shift its sleep schedule back to the usual 2 p.m. reveille beginning Saturday.

 

Wiseman, Suraev and Gerst are scheduled to spend 166 days aboard the station.  When Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev head back to Earth on Sept. 10, it will mark the end of Expedition 40 and the beginning of Expedition 41 under the command of Suraev. Three additional Expedition 41 crewmates will arrive later that month.

 

The tenure of Expedition 40 will include a variety of research projects focusing on human research, biology and biotechnology, Earth and space science, physical science investigations, technology demonstrations and educational activities.  Results from these activities will help advance the body of scientific knowledge, leading to potential Earth benefits such as improved weather forecasts and human medical advancements.

 

The hardware and samples for many of these experiments – along with crew supplies and other cargo – will arrive on four different resupply vehicles scheduled to visit the station during Expedition 40: Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus, a Russian Progress resupply ship, ESA’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle and the SpaceX Dragon.

 

There are also two Russian and three U.S. spacewalks planned during Expedition 40.

 

Wiseman, a U.S. Navy commander, is making his first spaceflight.  He reported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in August 2009 and completed astronaut candidate training in May 2011.

 

Suraev is making his second long-duration visit to the station, having logged more than 169 days in space as an Expedition 21/22 flight engineer from Sept. 30, 2009 through March 18, 2010. He completed a 5-hour, 44-minute spacewalk on Jan. 14, 2010, to prepare the Poisk Mini-Research Module-2 for vehicle dockings and inaugurated that same port when he relocated his Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft there a week later.

 

Gerst, who was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009, is making his first trip into space.