Spaceflightnow.com
Life among the akasha (space) devas: a symbolic ISS gathering of nations from Earth
Rolling out to Gagarin's launch pad on a bitterly cold December morning, the next Soyuz rocket now stands poised for [Dec. 15] Wednesday's blastoff carrying Russian, American, and Italian crewmates on their journey to the International Space Station (ISS). The Soyuz TMA-20 capsule and its three-stage booster traveled by rail from the final assembly building to the Baikonur Cosmodrome pad at dawn today. NASA's Cady Coleman, Russia's Dmitry Kondratyev, and the European Space Agency's Paolo Nespoli will ride the rocket into orbit Wednesday, launching at 2:09 p.m. EST (1909 GMT). They are headed for a Friday arrival at the space station with docking around 3:12 p.m. EST (2012 GMT). More>>