Space - Soyuz blasts off with American and Russian - Curt Lewis

Russian Soyuz craft blasts off for space station with veteran cosmonaut, rookie astronaut

Veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and rookie flight engineer Jack Fischer were boosted into orbit Thursday after a picture-perfect midday launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, kicking off a six-hour flight to the International Space Station.

Taking off from the same launch pad that Yuri Gagarin used to become the first man in space, the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft thundered to life at 3:13:44 a.m. EDT, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the rocket into the plane of the space station's orbit.

The workhorse booster quickly climbed away, arcing to the East as it set off on a tightly choreographed rendezvous to catch up with the space station, which passed 250 miles directly above the launch site three minutes before liftoff.

Live video from inside the Soyuz showed Yurchikhin, making his fifth space flight, and Fischer, making his first, calmly monitoring cockpit displays as the rocket accelerated toward orbit.

Eight minutes and 45 seconds after launch, the booster's third stage shut down and the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft was released to fly on its own in an orbit measuring 123 by 159 miles. A few moments later, antennas and both two solar panels unfolded and locked in place.

If all goes well, Yurchikhin and Fischer will monitor an automated approach to the space station, moving in for docking at the upper Poisk module around 9:23 a.m EDT.

After verifying an airtight seal, hatches will be opened and the Soyuz crew will be welcomed aboard by Expedition 51 commander Peggy Whitson, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Soyuz MS-03 commander Oleg Novitskiy.

This was the first launch of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying just two passengers since 2003. The Russian spacecraft normally carries three crew members, but Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, recently opted to reduce its crew complement by one, and to cut back the number of Progress supply ships needed, in a bid to save money in the near term.

As a result, the MS-04 spacecraft was launched with an empty seat, carrying additional supplies instead of a crew member.

That seat will be filled by Whitson when Yurchikhin and Fischer return to Earth Sept. 3 to close out a planned 135-day mission. Whitson, who launched with Novitskiy and Pesquet in the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft last Nov. 17, will remain in orbit when her crewmates return to Earth June 2.

Extending Whitson's mission ensures two U.S. astronauts will be aboard the station this summer when otherwise only one -- Fischer -- would have been available, keeping U.S. research on track. It also protects the option for a contingency spacewalk if problems crop up on the U.S. segment of the station.

Yurchikhin is a 58-year-old father of two who holds a Ph.D. in economics. He is a former military pilot and veteran of four earlier space flights, one aboard a space shuttle and three long-duration stays aboard the station. With a combined 537 days in orbit, he is one of the world's most experienced space fliers.

Fischer, 43, is an Air Force colonel and former test pilot with a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A father of two teenage girls who frequently refers to his wife Elizabeth as "a smokin' hot blonde chick," Fischer flew F-15E fighters during two combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He later attended Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and eventually helped put the F-22 Raptor through its paces. With more than 3,000 hours flying time, Fischer will serve as Yurchikhin's flight engineer during launch and landing, a daunting task given the need to be fluent in Russian.

"You have to spend a lot of time here in Star City (near Moscow) and because of the complexity of the vehicle, it makes the training very complex," he said. "You have to understand when those systems work, when they don't work, when you need to switch to the others. But all in all, it really is a fantastic little vehicle. A little tight on space, but she works pretty good."

Yurchikhin and Fischer face a busy stay in space. On Saturday, an Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo ship launched Tuesday will arrive for berthing at the central Unity module's Earth-facing port.

On Monday, President Trump and daughter Ivanka plan to call the station for a video conference with Whitson and Fischer to congratulate the station commander for setting a new space endurance record. Already the most experienced female spacewalker, Whitson will become NASA's most experienced astronaut around 1:27 a.m. Monday, passing the previous U.S. mark for cumulative time in space of 534 days two hours and 48 minutes.

When she returns to Earth with Yurchikhin and Fischer on Sept. 3, she will have logged 666 days in space during three missions, moving her up to eighth in the world, one spot behind Yurchikhin, who will have logged 672 days aloft over his five missions.

On May 12, Whitson and Fischer plan to carry out a spacewalk that originally was planned earlier this year. During a six-and-a-half hour excursion, they will replace an external computer, install a high-definition camera on the station's power truss, attach micrometeoroid shielding to a docking port and help engineers troubleshoot cooling issues with a high-energy physics experiment.

Novitskiy and Pesquet will return to Earth on June 2 and Yurchikhin will take over as commander of Expedition 52. A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is scheduled to arrive the next day carrying another load of equipment and supplies and a Russian Progress cargo ship is scheduled for launch June 14.

Yurchikhin, Whitson and Fischer will have the station to themselves until July 28 when the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft shows up carrying three spaceflight veterans: vehicle commander Sergey Ryazanskiy, Randy Bresnik and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

Yurchikhin and Ryazanskiy plan to stage a Russian spacewalk in August before the Soyuz MS-04 crew returns to Earth Sept. 3.