Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft delivers new crew to ISS

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan April 20. /TASS/. Russia’s spacecraft Soyuz MS-04 with a crew of two on board has docked to the International Space Station, the space corporation Roscosmos has told TASS. The docking was performed in the automatic mode, a source in the corporation said. The Soyuz-FG rocket blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhstan at 10:13 Moscow time. The spacecraft entered the designated orbit nine minutes later. The flight to the ISS was performed under a shorter, six-hour scenario. The previous three flights of the Soyuz MS spacecraft were experimental ones and lasted two days. The spacecraft has brought to the ISS a crew of two - Russia’s Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA’s Jack Fischer. The third, vacant seat, was used for a 70-kilogram cargo container. Last time a Soyuz spacecraft was launched to the ISS with a reduced crew on board in 2003. On board the ISS there is a crew of three - Russia’s Oleg Novitsky, NASA’s Peggy Whitson and European astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Originally Russia was to send two cosmonauts to the ISS. However, Roscosmos later made a decision to reduce the crew of the Russian segment of the ISS from three to two until the multi-functional laboratory module Nauka is put in space. This arrangement will last till the autumn of 2018. In the meantime, the number of foreign astronauts will grow from three to four. The third seat in the Soyuz MS-04 capsule was meant for a foreign astronaut but no suitable candidate was selected within a tight deadline. Read more