500Th Manned Space Launch: Soyuz Rocket With Three Astronauts Launched Towards ISS

[Purveyor]

Source: Firstpost

Sep 2, 2015 12:34 IST

A Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts successfully launched towards the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking the 500th manned launch in space travel history.

The trio, including the first Danish citizen ever to fly into space, blasted off in the Soyuz TMA 18M rocket on schedule at 0437 GMT from the same launchpad that Yuri Gagarin used for his historic entry into the cosmos in 1961.
The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft successfully launched with 3 astronauts on board. AFP

The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft successfully launched with 3 astronauts on board. AFP

"The crew is doing well, everything is in order onboard," relayed mission control at Baikonur.



Read more: http://www.firstpost.com/world/500th-manned-space-launch-soyuz-rocket-with-three-astronauts-launched-towards-iss-2417858.html

[drm604]

1. 500 launches.

I can remember when you could count them on one hand.

[Octafish]

2. !

Might be at 50,000, were it not for Nixon.

[drm604]

3. I hear you.

We might have a permanent base on Mars by now.

[Fred Sanders]

4. Trillion dollars for the F35.....peanuts for ISS, but none for the real space station we were promised.

Explaining why we can not have nice things:

[Octafish]

5. Using just the darn Dyna-Soar we coulda done some great things...

If we'd continued developing liquid fueled rockets so they don't leave the chromium di-oxfrickspiro whatever the solids leave in the atmosphere, space'd be just the ticket for saving the planet, from mining the moon to beaming down all the energy Steve Ballmer needs for air conditioning. We may yet, for the US Space Navy, BFEE cough fascists or no BFEE cough fascists.

[bananas]

7. Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser orbital test flight next year

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Chaser

The historical antecedents of the Dream Chaser go back over 50 years in the US; with the 1957 X-20 Dyna-Soar concept ...

<snip>

An initial orbital test flight of the Dream Chaser orbital test vehicle is planned for 1 November 2016, launching on an Atlas V rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

[MisterP]

8. nnnnnot 50,000

Last edited Fri Sep 4, 2015, 03:23 PM - Edit history (1)

frankly space advocacy is being hugely crippled by exorbitant and cultish promises that had been debunked in 1972

[LongTomH]

6. Great; but, I wish we were doing this with Made-in_America vehicles

Like SpaceX's Falcon rocket and Dragon 2 capsule.

[orange you glad]

9. Same here

We have willingly relinquished our leadership in human spaceflight.

[Baclava]

10. Rocket man, floating round my tin can

[Princess Turandot]

11. Docking coverage begins tomorrow, at 3AM Eastern on NASA TV (web/cable)...

There will be 9 people on the ISS when they arrive, although three will be coming back in a week (including two of tomorrow's arrivals).

One of the Americans already onboard is Commander Scott Kelly. He is the twin brother of Gabby Giffords' husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly. Scott and one of the cosmonauts, Mikhail Kornienko, are spending a full year aboard, to study the effect on the body of being in space during a long haul flight, such as the ~year and a half that it would take to reach Mars. (They're now on day 159.)