Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Multi-National Crew to Launch to Space Station Aboard First Soyuz-MS Spacecraft

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: July 6, 2016 at 9:59:28 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Multi-National Crew to Launch to Space Station Aboard First Soyuz-MS Spacecraft

ROSCOSMOS. Broadcast graphics preparation for the launch of TPK "UNION MS"
05.07.2016 15:18
July 7, 2016 at 04:36 MSK from "Gagarin start" Baikonur cosmodrome is scheduled to launch first manned transport spacecraft new series "MS Union" with the crew long expedition ISS-48/49.

Roscosmos will broadcast the main stages of the start-up campaign in the live (broadcast address section www.roscosmos.ru/317 ):
July 6 8:00 MSK - prelaunch press conference after a meeting of the crews of the State Commission for approval by the crew of the WPK "MS Union";
July 7 1:30 MSK - preparing for the launch of the carrier rocket "Soyuz-FG" 4:36 MSK - launch rocket "Soyuz-FG" from TPK "MS Union";
July 9 6:45 MSK - docking TPK "MS Union" with the ISS;
July 9 9:40 MSK - opening of the transfer hatches, the transition of the crew on the ISS, the crew of the first videoconference.
As a part of the main crew of the ISS-48/49 cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin Roscosmos, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins. Backup crew - cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky Roscosmos, ESA astronaut Thomas Sands, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson.

ROSCOSMOS. Prelaunch PRESS CONFERENCE OF CREWS
06.07.2016 9:10
July 6, 2016 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a press conference of the main and backup crews of the first manned transport spacecraft (TPC), a new series of "MS Union", which start with the ISS is scheduled for July 7, 2016. Cosmonauts and astronauts answered questions from journalists and spoke about the plans of the upcoming expedition into orbit.

In just a few minutes before the press conference, the State Commission approved a core crew of the WPK "MS Union" within the Federal Space Agency Anatoly Ivanishin cosmonaut, astronaut Takuya Onishi JAXA and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins.

Video of the press conference crews

https://youtu.be/eJaP4RZws5E

The members of the main crew reported that they were happy to provide an opportunity to fly on a space ship first of a new series "MS Union" and noted its improved performance over previous versions with the ships.

Roscosmos cosmonaut, spaceship commander Anatoly Ivanishin stressed that the flight will be a test, so choose a classic two-day 34-turn circuit rendezvous with the ISS, which is traditionally more reliable and suitable for testing vehicle systems.

He praised a number of systems and components that are included in the complex avionics modernized spacecraft, in particular well-characterized single command and telemetry system, radio systems rendezvous and docking "Kurs-NA", the digital redundant loop control unit development RSC "Energia" , satellite navigation systems and other components.

"Radio system " Kurs-NA "is created on the new element base, the apparatus has become easier, it reduced the number of antennas. Thanks to the autonomous navigation system, we were able to very accurately determine the coordinates of the instantaneous. Changed engine layout: now the two collectors are completely interchangeable. Much to replace in the framework of modernization. In general we can say that the ship has become more intelligent and reliable ", - said the astronaut.

In turn, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, in response to a reporter's question about whether he feels the anxiety of approaching the first flight of the modernized ship, said it has full confidence in the Russian space technology and not for a moment doubt the professionalism of the commander. He added that he would take with him to the ISS a lot of Japanese food, which will entertain everyone.

NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins highlighted that on board the ISS will try to give the maximum time of scientific activity, and especially experiment to study the effect of space flight factors on the human body. She added that she is not afraid of a large volume of work at the station and will participate in dynamic operations, as well as make a spacewalk by American segment program.

According to the new members of the crew carrying the watch is now on the ISS astronauts Roscosmos Alexei Ovchinin, Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jeffrey Williams expect from Earth gifts and letters to be delivered on the ship "MS Union."

The members of the main crew describe their health as excellent and stated that fully prepared for the tasks of the program of the upcoming flight, confident in the technique on 100% and look forward to the start.

Start of the first manned spacecraft of a new modification of "Union of MS" with the crew once long expedition to the ISS is scheduled at 04:36 MSK 7 July 2016 from the platform number 1 ( "Gagarin's Start") the Baikonur cosmodrome.

During the semi-annual expedition to the ISS crew will work with cargo spacecraft "Progress MS" undocking "Soyuz TMA-20M" from MRM2 and the return of the three members of the crew of the ISS-47/48 into the earth; docking of "Soyuz MS-02" with three members of the crew of ISS-49 and ISS-50 to MRM2; maintenance of health stations and participate in its retrofitting. It is planned to conduct flight tests of the new ship, including the testing of new systems on-board electronic system (BRTS), the combined propulsion system (KDU), traffic management and navigation systems (the ship), the TV system (TVS); work with the American cargo ship Dragon, Japanese HTV. The program of scientific and applied research and experimentation (many of which are prepared by specialists of RSC "Energia") provided 39 scientific experiments in various fields -. Medical-biological, geophysical, biotechnology, etc. The total planned duration of the flight crew will be 115 days.

RKS. COMMUNICATION ON THE NEW GENERATION "UNION MS"
06.07.2016 11:03
The onboard radio system of the new generation of ECTS-TCA created JSC "Russian Space Systems" (RCC, is a state corporation "Roscosmos"), will provide a link with the manned spacecraft of the new series "MS Union." A relay satellites "Luch-5" it will give telemetric information from the spacecraft, will enable it to manage systems from the Earth and keep the audio and video communication with the crew. Start "MS Union" is scheduled for July 7, 2016.

The new ECTS-TKA replaced the "Quantum-in" system, which was installed on the ships "Progress" and "Union" of the previous series. Unlike its predecessor ECTS-TCA uses a single digital data link and lets outside the zone of radio visibility of ground stations to use for communication with the Earth a new multifunctional space relay system (MKSR) "Ray." Three relay satellite from the broadcast of the system information on the located on the territory of Russian ground stations "Maple-R" when the ship is outside the direct radio. Stations "Maple-R", which is also the developer of PKC, are in Moscow and Zheleznogorsk.

Deputy General Designer Nikolai PKC Bulgakov: "The advantage of the new communication system - the ability to control all the telemetered vehicle parameters, manage and communicate with the crew, including through a video broadcast continuously. Even today, the possibility of ground stations and the satellite constellation allow you to do this for 70% of the duration of the ship's flight around the Earth. Constant 100-percent connection to the crew will be available after the commissioning of another station, "Maple-R" at the cosmodrome "East". Its comprehensive test plan to complete later this year. "

The new communication system was created with the advice of the International Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCDS) and is fully compliant with international standards applicable to the European-relay satellites DRS and American TDRSS.

The first tests took place ECTS radio system on cargo spacecraft "Progress-MS" and the International Space Station (ISS).

Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности "РОСКОСМОС"
107996, ГСП-6, г. Москва, ул. Щепкина, д.42
Тел.: +7 (495) 631-97-61
Факс: +7 (495) 688-90-63

Commission approves crew of next ISS expedition

July 06, 9:42 UTC+3
The launch of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS spacecraft is scheduled for 04:36 am, Moscow time on July 7

© Marina Lystseva/TASS

BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan), July 6. /TASS/. The state commission has approved the crew of the next expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), which will fly to orbit on July 7 from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos reported on Wednesday.
"Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins and the Japanese Space Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi have been approved as the main crew members," Roscosmos said.
The launch of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS spacecraft is scheduled for 04:36 am, Moscow time on July 7. The spacecraft is expected to dock to the Russian ISS segment on July 9 at 07:12 am, Moscow time.
It will be the second spaceflight for this Ivanishin, and Rubens and Onishi have not flown into space so far.
Colonel Yaroslav Roshchupkin, an aide to the district commander, reported on Wednesday that the aviation search and rescue forces and means of Russia's Central Military District had taken positions at the operational airfields along the Soyuz MS manned spacecraft flight trajectory.
"The aviation forces and all-terrain vehicles have been positioned in Baikonur, Karaganda, Gorno-Altaisk and Kyzyl. An hour before spacecraft's blastoff, the military will be placed on high alert. A total 124 military servicemen, 10 Mil Mi-8 helicopters with special equipment and doctors on board, two Antonov An-12 and An-26 planes and 16 vehicles are involved in the search and rescue support of the launch," Roshchupkin said.
The regional department of the Central Military District in Yekaterinburg organized the duty for the spacecraft launch and orbiting.

© 2016 TASS

AmericaSpace
For a nation that explores
July 5th, 2016 |
Multi-National Crew to Launch to Space Station Aboard First Soyuz-MS Spacecraft
By Ben Evans

Commanded by veteran cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin (center), the Soyuz MS-01 crew is rounded out by "rookie" spacefarers Kate Rubins (left) of NASA and Takuya Onishi (right) of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Photo Credit: NASA
A retired Russian Air Force fighter pilot, a former Boeing 767 copilot and a civilian microbiologist who describes herself as a "former virus hunter" will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:36 a.m. local time on Thursday, 7 July (9:36 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, 6 July), bound for almost four months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Russia's Anatoli Ivanishin, Japan's Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins will fly the maiden voyage of the new "Soyuz-MS" spacecraft and, as such, will embark on a standard two-day rendezvous profile, arriving at the orbital outpost late Thursday. The trio will form the second half of Expedition 48, under the command of Jeff Williams, then rotate into the "core" of Expedition 49, through their return to Earth in late October.
Forty-seven-year-old Anatoli Ivanishin wrapped up two decades of service in the Russian Air Force when he retired from active military duty in 2012, shortly after his first space mission. Born in Irkutsk on the banks of the Angara River and one of Siberia's largest cities, he dreamed of aviation from childhood and made his first parachute jump at the age of 14. His first attempt in 1986 to enter the Chernigov Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots was unsuccessful—by his own admission he was "not a good student"—and Ivanishin completed a year at Irkutsk Polytechnic Institute before a second attempt in 1987. This time, he succeeded and graduated from Chernigov with a coveted gold medal in 1991.
The Soyuz-MS crew will form the second half of Expedition 48, before rotating into the core of Expedition 49, under Anatoli Ivanishin's command. Photo Credit: Michael Galindo/AmericaSpace
Within the Russian Air Force, Ivanishin flew the Mikoyan MiG-29 and its larger cousin, the Sukhoi Su-27, as a fighter pilot in the Voronezh and Karelia regions, as well as cementing his parachuting credentials. In 2003, he graduated in economics, statistics and information theory from Moscow State University and in May of that same year was selected as a cosmonaut candidate. After two years of training and evaluation, Ivanishin became a test-cosmonaut and initially served in 2010-2011 on the Soyuz TMA-20M and Soyuz TMA-21M backup crews, before rotating into the prime crew for Soyuz TMA-22M. He launched on his first space mission on 14 November 2011, alongside Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and NASA's Dan Burbank. The three men spent 5.5 months aboard the ISS, initially as the second half of Expedition 29 and later as the core of Expedition 30. Upon his return to Earth on 27 April 2012, Ivanishin had accrued more than 165 days in space and 2,580 orbits of the Home Planet.
Commanding the Soyuz-MS tomorrow, Ivanishin will occupy the center seat aboard the first flight of the fourth generation of this historic spacecraft, whose heritage dates back to the mid-1960s. Seated to his left side will be 41-year-old Takuya Onishi, Japan's 11th astronaut, who will be embarking on the first spaceflight of his career. Born in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, he studied aeronautical and space engineering at the capital's university, graduating in 1998. Onishi joined All Nippon Airways, Ltd. (ANA) that same year, initially working within the passenger service department at Tokyo's Haneda Airport as a check-in agent, before beginning dedicated flight training. Two years were spent on basic instruction in Bakersfield, Calif., followed by a year of advanced training in Tokyo. In October 2003, Onishi became a copilot for ANA's Boeing 767 fleet and flew both domestic and international routes over the next six years.
He was selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) as part of a group of new astronauts—alongside Kimiya Yui and Norishige Kanai—in February 2009. He retired from ANA and underwent early training at the Tsukuba Space Center in Japan. Onishi subsequently moved to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, to begin training alongside NASA's 20th group of astronaut candidates, who were selected in June 2009. One of his fellow "Ascans" was Kate Rubins. Born in Farmington, Conn., Rubins grew up wanting to be "in order, an astronaut, a geologist and a biologist". Her initial aspiration in achieving the primary goal was to become a fighter pilot, but she was introduced to public health prevention of HIV in high school and attending a DNA conference carried her career in a somewhat different direction.
"I became fascinated with molecular biology and viruses," recalled the now 37-year-old Rubins, "and have been going along that path for the last 15 years." She received her degree in molecular biology from the University of California at San Diego and entered the Infectious Diseases Laboratory at La Jolla's Salk Institute for Biological Studies to analyze HIV integration mechanisms. During this period, Rubins earned her PhD in cancer biology from Stanford University and worked with the U.S. Army and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop the first model of smallpox infection. She later served as a principal investigator at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., leading a team to focus on viral diseases in Central and West Africa. Her work included the genome sequencing of the Ebola and Marburg filoviruses and Lassa Fever, as well as joint work to develop possible therapies. A scuba diver and triathlon competitor, Rubins is also a keen aviator and parachutist.
Expedition 48/49 crew members (from left) Takuya Onishi, Kate Rubins and Anatoli Ivanishin will fly the maiden voyage of Russia's new Soyuz-MS spacecraft. Photo Credit: NASA, via Joachim Becker/SpaceFacts.de
Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins came together as a crew in the late spring of 2014, although JAXA had announced the selection of its astronaut the previous November. Ivanishin's name was attached to the mission in early 2014 and Rubins began her formal training at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center (GCTC) at Star City, on the forested outskirts of Moscow, in June. The trio was announced by NASA in February 2015 and initially served as backups to Yuri Malenchenko, Tim Kopra and Tim Peake for Soyuz TMA-19M, before rotating into the prime crew assignment for Soyuz MS-01.
As outlined previously by AmericaSpace, the fourth-generation Soyuz-MS is equipped with higher-efficiency solar arrays, better propulsion system redundancy, the new "Kurs-NA" ("Course") rendezvous hardware, a lighter flight computer and improved telemetry, control and autonomous navigation capabilities. It was originally planned to make its debut in March 2016, ferrying Jeff Williams and his Russian crewmates Alexei Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka into orbit, but could not be readied in time. As a result, Williams' crew was switched onto Soyuz TMA-20M—the final outing of the older-specification variant of the spacecraft—and Ivanishin's crew was moved onto Soyuz MS-01. Many of the systems for the new Soyuz have been extensively tested aboard the new Progress-MS cargo ship, whose maiden voyage launched in December 2015 and was completed last weekend.
Since this is the maiden voyage of Soyuz-MS, Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins will adopt a "standard" two-day rendezvous profile to reach the ISS, in contrast to the six-hour and four-orbit "fast rendezvous" typically followed by incoming crews since March 2013. "The Russian flight control team will test upgraded command and telemetry system, upgraded approach and attitude-control thrusters, omni-directional antennas, a single Kurs automated rendezvous antenna, additional redundant electrical motors for the docking assembly and the efficiency of the solar arrays" during the extended approach regime, according to NASA's Rob Navias. The new command and telemetry system, in particular, will enable radio communications coverage for up to 70 percent of each orbit, via Russia's Luch-5 relay satellite system.
As it presently stands, their mission may turn out to be the shortest ISS increment in almost seven years. Originally scheduled to run from May through late October, the previous increment of Expedition 47 was extended by a month until early June and subsequently by two additional weeks, finally returning to Earth on 18 June. This led to a corresponding move of the Soyuz MS-01 launch to 24 June. In the meantime, the spacecraft was put through leak checks in the vacuum chamber at Baikonur in the second half of May, before being transferred to Site 254 for further inspections. However, the requirement to perform additional software tests prompted an additional delay of two weeks to the night of 6/7 July, but the targeted landing date of 30 October remained unchanged.
This will produce a total mission duration of 116 days for Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins, marking the shortest increment to the ISS since NASA astronaut Nicole Stott's 90-day stay during Expedition 20/21 in the fall of 2009. That said, last year's Soyuz TMA-17M mission—whose own launch had met with extensive delay—was extended by several weeks beyond its original landing date. It remains to be seen if the Soyuz MS-01 flight will be similarly extended whilst in orbit.
Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins and their backup crew of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, France's Thomas Pesquet and former NASA Chief Astronaut Peggy Whitson flew from Star City to Baikonur on 24 June to enter their final days of pre-flight preparations. In parallel, Soyuz MS-01 was loaded with propellants and compressed gases and was encapsulated within its payload fairing, ahead of integration atop the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle on Sunday, 3 July. A direct descendent of the R-7 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), the Soyuz-FG comprises a central "core" and four tapering, strap-on boosters, fueled by liquid oxygen and a highly refined form of rocket-grade kerosene, known as "RP-1".
Backing up Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins are Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky (center), NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and France's Thomas Pesquet. They are seen at the base of the Soyuz MS-01 launch vehicle on 3 July. Photo Credit: Thomas Pesquet/Twitter
"Standing under a 300-ton rocket," tweeted Pesquet on Sunday, sharing an image of himself, Novitsky and Whitson. "What could possibly go wrong?" Early on Monday morning, the booster was rolled horizontally from the assembly building to Site 1/5—the famed "Gagarin's Start"—where it was raised to a vertical height of 162.4 feet (49.5 meters). Emblazoned on the side of the booster was the number "70", representing this year's 70th anniversary of the foundation of RSC Energia, Russia's principal developer of human spaceflight systems.
The prime and backup crews will be awakened tomorrow about 8.5 hours before T-0. They will shower and be disinfected, after which microbial samples will be taken in support of scientific and biomedical experiments. A traditional blessing by a Russian Orthodox priest will be followed by the signing of their Cosmonaut Hotel bedroom doors and departure for Baikonur's Site 254, where they will don their Sokol ("Falcon") launch and entry suits. This will also give them the opportunity—from behind glass screens—to bid farewell to their friends and families. At Site 1/5, the crew will be inserted into Soyuz MS-01, with Ivanishin assuming the center seat, flanked by Onishi to his left and Rubins to his right.
Aboard the spacecraft, it has become traditional for crews to carry a "gravity indicator" to notify them of the onset of weightlessness. Typically, this is provided by one of the crew members' children and for tomorrow's mission it will be a soft toy bear named "Rilakkuma". It has been provided by Onishi's daughter. According to his manufacturer, the Japanese stationery company San-X, Rilakkuma mysteriously appeared in the apartment of a secretary named Kaoru and decided to take up residence there. On 6/7 July 2016, Rilakkuma will instead take up residence in the decidedly more cramped "apartment" of Soyuz MS-01, where he will take up residence for the next several months.
Launch is targeted for 7:36 a.m. local time on Thursday, 7 July (9:36 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, 6 July), after which the Soyuz-FG will rise into the night sky under the combined impulse of the RD-108 core engine and the four RD-107 engines of its strap-on boosters. The four boosters will be jettisoned after two minutes, with the RD-108 continuing the push upwards for the remainder of first-stage flight. The final stage of the Soyuz-FG will then boost Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins to 13,420 mph (21,600 km/h) and by the time it separates from the stack at nine minutes after launch the crew will have attained a preliminary orbit of 125 x 160 miles (200 x 260 km), inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. At this time, Onishi and Rubins will become the 545th and 546th humans to enter space.
Their two-day flight profile will draw them inexorably closer to the ISS and they are targeted to dock at the Earth-facing (or "nadir") port of the Rassvet module. This is the same port recently vacated by Malenchenko, Kopra and Peake aboard Soyuz TMA-19M. Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins will have little time to become acclimated to their new environs, for a busy period of space station operations lies ahead. Current plans call for SpaceX's CRS-9 Dragon—conducted under the language of the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA—and Russia's Progress MS-03 to launch in the mid-July timeframe, followed by Orbital ATK's OA-5 Cygnus in mid-August. The arrival of the SpaceX Dragon will also bring the first Boeing-built International Docking Adapter (IDA), which is due to be installed onto the forward end of the Harmony node during an EVA by Williams and Rubins "around the third week of August". In comments provided to AmericaSpace, Rob Navias noted that specific details for the EVA, including "get-ahead" tasks, are currently being refined.
Williams, Ovchinin and Skripochka are currently scheduled to return to Earth on 7 September, wrapping up almost six months in orbit, after which Ivanishin will assume command and lead the new Expedition 49 until the end of his own mission. Later in September, the station will welcome NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and his Russian crewmates Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko, thereby bringing Expedition 49 up to its full, six-person strength. Flying aboard Soyuz MS-02, Kimbrough, Ryzhikov and Borisenko will also follow a two-day rendezvous, although it remains undecided if subsequent crews will do the same or revert to the shorter approach profile.

Copyright © 2016 AmericaSpace - All Rights Reserved

By William Harwood CBS News July 5, 2016, 11:29 AM
Russians prep new Soyuz for launch to space station
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins monitors Soyuz cockpit displays during simulator training in in Star City near Moscow. Rubins, Soyuz MS-01 commander Anatoly Ivanishin and flight engineer Takuya Onishi are set to launch July 6, 2016 on a flight to the International Space Station. NASA
A veteran cosmonaut, a former Japanese 767 airline pilot and a NASA astronaut with a Ph.D. in cancer biology are making final preparations for launch July 6 on a two-day flight to the International Space Station. It will be the first flight in an upgraded Soyuz ferry craft with improved, more redundant navigation, communications and computer equipment.
Soyuz MS-01 commander Anatoly Ivanishin, flight engineer Takuya Onishi and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins are scheduled for blastoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:36:41 p.m. EDT Wednesday (GMT-4, 7:36 a.m. Thursday local time).
Rubins, making her first space flight along with Onishi, said she's looking forward to the thrill of launch, downplaying the risk of riding a rocket to orbit. Not surprising, perhaps, given her multiple trips to Africa to study Ebola and related viruses.
"You expect and you hope that everything goes according to plan, but if it doesn't, these are the two guys you want to be with you in your spacecraft," she said. "I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to fly with these guys."
While Soyuz crews in recent years have utilized four-orbit rendezvous flight plans, reaching the space station within about six hours of launch, Ivanishin and his crewmates will revert to a 34-orbit chase to give engineers and flight controllers a chance to thoroughly check out the MS-01 vehicle's upgraded systems.
If all goes well, Ivanishin and Onishi will oversee an automated approach to the space station early Saturday, gliding to a docking at the Earth-facing Rassvet module around 12:12 a.m.
Standing by to welcome them aboard will be Expedition 48 commander Jeffrey Williams, Soyuz TMA-20M commander Alexey Ovchinin and veteran flight engineer Oleg Skripochka.
Launched March 18, Williams and his crewmates have had the station to themselves since June 18 when Expedition 47 commander Timothy Kopra, Soyuz TMA-19M commander Yuri Malenchenko and British astronaut Timothy Peake departed and returned to Earth after a 186-day mission.
A veteran of four missions, Williams will set a new U.S. record for cumulative time in space on Aug. 24 when he moves past the 520-day record set by former astronaut Scott Kelly after his recently completed nearly yearlong stay aboard the station. When Williams returns to Earth Sept. 7, he will move up to 14th on the list of most experienced space fliers with 534 days off planet.
In any case, with the arrival of Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins, the station crew will grow again to six and research activity will ramp back up to normal.
And that's exactly what Rubins is looking forward to.
With an undergraduate degree in molecular biology and a doctorate from Stanford University, Rubins, 37, caught the biology bug in high school, working in public health to improve HIV education. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in cancer biology, making regular trips to the Congo to study Ebola and related viruses.
The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft was hauled to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstand early Monday to prepare the ship for launch Wednesday.
NASA
She applied to NASA on a bit of a whim and was surprised when she was accepted as one of 14 astronaut candidates in 2009. Now, with a pilot's license in hand and detailed training in Soyuz and space station systems, she's finally ready to carry her research into orbit.
"It's a really neat laboratory because it's the only place we can actually study gravity as a variable," she said. "Scientists across all disciplines throughout the hundreds of years that we've been doing science have always had gravity as a constant in their experiments. This is really the one lab where we can use it as a variable. We can even alter the amount of gravity, we can centrifuge things.
"It's really a way to investigate what happens to physiological beings, to their individual cells and their tissues when you don't have gravity. It's a lot of basic research. But we can understand things about physiological processes because we're using the space station and microgravity there, we can discover processes we've never been able to before on Earth."
Asked how she might spend her spare time in orbit, Rubins laughed and said she views time off as extra time to carry out research.
"I might end up trying to do some experiments in my spare time because that's what I'm most interested in," she said. "I'm particularly interested in trying to do some sequencing of DNA on board, so that's one of the things I think is going to be a very exciting payload that we have."
But, she quickly added, she also looks forward to the opportunity to look out the windows at Earth 250 miles below.
"My assumption going in is I'm going to love this," she said in an interview. "This is going to be an amazing experience, and I think I'm going to love every minute of it."
While the Soyuz MS-01 ferry ship Rubins and her crewmates will ride into orbit looks virtually identical to the previous Soyuz TMA-series spacecraft, the upgraded model offers a variety of incremental improvements that will help streamline rendezvous procedures and improve redundancy.
"We have a new engine arrangement, now we have two manifolds of attitude control engines," Ivanishin said. "Should we have a failure in one of the manifolds we have a backup. We have a new system that allows the vehicle to be commanded from the ground, to send telemetry, to have voice exchange and even to transfer files using (a) satellite constellation."
Unlike NASA, which has long operated a fleet of dedicated communications satellites that provide near complete communications from anywhere in orbit, the Russians have had to rely on passes over ground stations for data and commanding. With the upgrades in the MS-series Soyuz, crews will be able to communicate with flight controllers over 70 percent of each orbit via Russian satellites.
On top of that, Ivanishin said, "we have a new radar, it has become more reliable, less weight and as a result, we have changes in the rendezvous file. Now we will turn it on later than we used to. ... This radar allows us to reduce the number of antennas."
To road test the new systems, many of the MS upgrades were first installed and tested on the two most recent unpiloted Progress supply ships.
The Soyuz MS-01 crew (left to right): NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, a molecular biologist; commander Anatoly Ivanishin, a veteran cosmonaut; and Japanese flight engineer Takuya Onishi, a former airline pilot.
NASA
One of those, launched last December, participated in a final test last Friday when it undocked from the Pirs module and moved out to a distance of about 600 feet. At that point, an upgraded "TORU" msnual control system was engaged and Ovchinin and Skripochka, working in the Russian Zvezda module, remotely guided the cargo craft back to docking.
The same system is available aboard the MS-series Soyuz in case of problems with the automated rendezvous system.
The new Soyuz has "a modified control system, guidance and navigation, it will get its state vector from the Russian equivalent of GPS so it doesn't require passes over ground sites in the greater Russian area like previous vehicles," Williams said in an interview. "So that makes the vehicle a little bit more robust in that sense. It's got more digital capability."
He should know. Williams, Ovchinin and Skripochka originally were scheduled to fly the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft into orbit earlier this spring, but launch delays and other issues prompted the Russians to move Ivanishin, Onishi and Rubins to the MS-01 spacecraft and to launch Williams and his crewmates aboard the final TMA-series spacecraft.
For his part, Onishi downplayed the differences between the TMA- and MS-series Soyuz, saying they "are not big and not so many from the crew's perspective."
But training in Russian to serve as the Soyuz co-pilot was a major challenge.
"Training in Russia is really different from training style here in Houston," he told reporters earlier this year at the Johnson Space Center.
"Let's say you need to learn how to use microwave. Here in Houston, they only teach us, we just need to open the door, then put a dish inside the microwave, select time, push the start button. That's all. If we have any problems with the microwave or heating, just let the ground team know. That's how NASA teaches us.
"In Russia, it's totally different. They start teaching us the principles of physics, how we can heat up things using microwaves. So there was a lot of studying almost every day, from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. So it was quite challenging for me."
Rubins said she enjoyed the challenge of "integrating everything."
"You go through this two-and-a-half-year training flow and you see a little slice of everything," she said. "We need to be able to do anything and everything on board, we need to understand all of the equipment, how to fix it.
"So you show up for work and one morning you're a plumber and the next morning you're a dentist and then you're going to be a scientist, then you're a spacewalker. You have to be pretty detail oriented and be able to be a little bit of an expert in each of these areas."
Rubins was born in 1978, the same year NASA selected the first group of female astronauts to fly on the space shuttle. Back then, NASA chose veteran military pilots to fly the shuttle and "mission specialists" to carry out on-board research, conduct spacewalks and launch satellites and other spacecraft.
The Soyuz MS-01 crew speaks with reporters in Star City near Moscow before flying to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to prepare for launch.
NASA
In the space station era, things have changed.
"What we do with training now is we really do teach the scientists how to be fighter pilots and we teach the fighter pilots how to be scientists," Rubins said. "I actually went to the Navy for a few months and I did flight school there, soloed. And, of course, we fly in T-38s (jets) for spaceflight training as well. So we've got several hundred hours in high-performance jet aircraft by the time we get ready to launch."
Like all space rookies and most veterans, Rubins said she looked forward to experiencing the thrill of launch because "it's an amazing amount of kinetic energy, and it's, I think, one of the most exciting things we've been doing as human beings in the last 50 years. That I'm absolutely looking forward to."
"On the flip side, I've even had the pleasure of designing courses for our pilots in molecular biology lab research. We designed a curriculum that we put them through. And they're phenomenal as you might expect. I would have hired any one of them to work in my lab."
But it won't be all science for Rubins and her crewmates. Before she and Ivanishin and Onishi return to Earth Oct. 30, they will welcome two Progress supply ships, the arrival of three fresh crewmates aboard the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft and cargo ships launched by SpaceX, Orbital ATK and the Japanese space agency.
And as it now stands, Rubins and Williams also will carry out one and possibly two spacewalks during their time in space together. The first, tentatively scheduled for late August, will be devoted to attaching a new docking mechanism to the front of the station that will be used by commercial crew ferry ships starting in 2018. A second EVA may be scheduled for September to conduct deferred maintenance.
But for Rubins, research is the name of the game.
"I really wasn't kidding when I said I've got plans to do as many experiments as I can in my time off," she said in an interview. "When I'm working in the lab, it doesn't seem like work to me, that's sometimes how I relax. You can call it work or you can call it play, but ... watching natural phenomena and making observations about them, that's science."

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Today's Journey to Space Station Will Take Longer Than Usual
By Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer | July 6, 2016 07:04am ET
The Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft on the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, July 4, 2016. Three crewmembers will make a two-day trip to the International Space Station in the upgraded vehicle.
Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Two astronauts and one cosmonaut will begin a two-day journey to the International Space Station tonight (June 6), rather than the more common 6-hour trip.
The three crewmembers are set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:36 p.m. EDT (0136 GMT on June 7). During the two-day flight to the station, the space travelers will test a variety of upgraded systems on the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft, which has a little more interior living space than a large van.
By compressing flight tasks, crews going to the International Space Station can make the trip in one-eighth the time. See how Russia's fast-track 6-hour Soyuz flights to the space station work in this Space.com infographic.
Credit: Karl Tate, Space.com Infographics Artist
Two-day trips to the International Space Station were the norm until 2013, when the Russian space agency implemented a new technique to get crewmembers to the station in just 6 hours.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin will orbit Earth 34 times before docking to the station at 12:12 a.m. EDT (0412 GMT) on Saturday, July 9. The crewmembers are scheduled to stay on the station for about four months, returning in October, according to NASA.
During their two days in orbit, the three crewmembers will test out a number of upgrades to the Soyuz spacecraft, NASA officials said in a statement. Those upgrades include "a new digital video transmitter and encoder to send engineering video of the ship's approach to the station for docking, a new relay telemetry capability along with an upgraded Kurs automated rendezvous antenna and an improved satellite navigation system to better calculate the Soyuz's position in space." The spacecraft is now also equipped with upgraded thrusters, additional micrometeoroid debris shielding, redundant electrical motors on the docking probe and additional photovoltaic cells on the spacecraft's solar arrays, the statement said. The upgraded systems have already been tested sans crew.
The first Soyuz crewmembers to make the expedited journey to the station were aboard Expedition 35, in November 2013. A NASA representative told Space.com that during training, Soyuz crewmembers prepare for extended stays in the Russian space vehicle, and there have been previous instances in which a Soyuz crew has had to stay longer than expected inside the vehicle.

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