International Space Station will no longer be "empty" – Computers

Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos are the three astronauts who have departed today to travel to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz MS-11. in the space. This new launch follows the October mission, which ended abruptly with the Soyuz incident due to operational errors a few minutes after takeoff, forcing ejection Emergency capsule with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin.

The failure of the October mission could change the schedule of the ISS because it would be necessary to look for the source of the problems before a new launch. If NASA does not send a new team, the ISS holders expected to return to Earth in December could extend their activities until the end of January. More time than that and the International Space Station would have been abandoned for the first time since it was put into service nearly two decades ago.

Fortunately, today 's launch comes to rebuild the agenda and the current crew of the ISS on board. by Alexander Gerst of ESA, Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscomos, returning on 20 December, after their stay since June.

The current team marks the "baptism" of two members' escape, Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques, "sponsored" by the experienced Oleg Kononenko da Roscosmos, is already his fourth trip in the # 39, ISS. The new team will remain on mission for six and a half months.

Second of NASA's agenda, the mission began at 10 am (Lisbon time), six-hour trip, making four orbits to the Earth, until the stowage of the Space Station. The astronauts will have to wait about two hours to open the floodgates until the two teams can finally come to witness.

The new team will continue to conduct hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology and science. physics and earth sciences aboard the ISS. NASA is broadcasting the mission live, with various comments and additions.