Russian Rocket Launches Astronauts on Holiday Space Station Trip

by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

Date: 21 December 2011 Time: 08:16 AM ET

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The Russian TMA-03M Soyuz spacecraft launches Dec. 21 from Kazakhstan, carrying three new crewmembers to the International Space Station. CREDIT: NASA TV View full size image

Three spaceflyers blasted off today (Dec. 21) from snowy Kazakhstan to spend the holidays on the International Space Station.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, part of the European Space Agency (ESA), lifted off atop the Russian Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:16 a.m. EST (1316 GMT).
The trio is bound for the space station, where they are scheduled to dock on Friday (Dec. 23) at 10:22 a.m. EST (1522 GMT). They are set to begin a roughly five-month stay on the orbiting outpost as part of the station's Expedition 30 mission, and will return in May 2012.

MORE: http://www.space.com/14007-russian-rocket-launch-space-station-crew-holidays.html

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