Rescue spaceship has successful liftoff
Two top NASA officials traveled from the US to observe the launch in person, given the urgent need for this capsule. To everyone’s relief, the capsule safely reached orbit nine minutes after liftoff, described by NASA Mission Control’s Rob Navias as “a perfect ride to orbit.”
Emergency plans call for Rubio to switch to a SpaceX crew capsule that’s docked at the space station until the new Soyuz arrives.
Prokopyev and Petelin remain assigned to their damaged Soyuz in the unlikely need for a fast getaway. Russian engineers concluded that having one less person on board would keep the temperature down to a manageable level.
The damaged Soyuz capsule will return to Earth with no one aboard by the end of March.
The three men launched in the Soyuz, last September, on what should have been a six-month mission.
They’ll now stay in space for a full year until a new capsule is ready for their crew replacements for liftoff in September. And the stranded crew can continue their mission until a new Soyuz capsule is prepared for their replacements in September.
