Soyuz Spacecraft Successfully Docks at ISS Written 10 April 2020
Soyuz MS-16 launches Expedition 63 crew from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, 9 April 2020. | GCTC; Andrey Shelepin; NASA
Spaceflight Now reports that the Soyuz spacecraft launch “went smoothly,” and “eight minutes and 46 seconds after liftoff, the booster’s third stage engine shut down and the Soyuz spacecraft was released to fly on its own. A few seconds later, its two solar arrays snapped open and antennas deployed as planned.” The International Space Station (ISS) “passed directly over the launch site about three minutes before takeoff and the booster climbed directly into the plane of its orbit. Six orbits after that, at 10:13 a.m., the Soyuz docked at the station’s upper Poisk module.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)