Soyuz

Soyuz TMA-17M rocket carrying Expedition 44, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, has successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS).

The crew includes Nasa astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) astronaut Kimiya Yui who joined Nasa’s Scott Kelly and Roscosmos’ Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko who have been aboard the microgravity laboratory since 27 March.

In the next five months, the Expedition 44 team will work on more than 250 science experiments covering biology, earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology developments.

The crew will harvest and evaluate crops grown onboard the station. They will consume half of the second crop of lettuce in the vegetable investigation, and store the remaining for evaluation on earth.

Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui will stay at on orbiting laboratory until late December.

"The [team] will work on more than 250 science experiments covering biology, earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology developments."

In September, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and Denmark’s first astronaut Andreas Mogensen will head to the station, and Mogensen and Padalka will return to earth in the Soyuz, which was launched in March.

Kelly and Kornienko will continue to work on their one-year space mission to understand the medical and psychological challenges experienced by astronauts on prolonged missions, and work towards developing measures to tackle such effects.

The ISS crew is currently working on the observation and analysis of smectic islands in space (OASIS) study, to look at the behaviour of liquid crystals in microgravity.

This could help researchers design better liquid crystal display devices, as well as use certain liquid crystals in small screens for use on the face shields in future space helmets.

In August, Russian crew members will perform a spacewalk for station maintenance and upgrades.

Image: The Soyuz TMA-17M rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo: courtesy of Nasa / A Gemignani.