Three crew members set for launch to International Space Station on Friday

New Delhi: Three new crew members will be launched for the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, July 28, 2017.

The trio - NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) will launch at 11:41 a.m. EDT (9:41 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, says NASA.

Live coverage of the launch will begin at 10:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

After launching, the trio will travel for six hours in the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft before docking to the space station’s Rassvet module at 6 p.m. EDT - NASA TV coverage of the docking will begin at 5:15 p.m.

Hatches between the Soyuz and station will open at approximately 7:40 p.m.

Video of prelaunch activities from the crew’s activities in Baikonur will air July 24-27 on NASA TV.

Hatches between the Soyuz and station will open at approximately 7:40 p.m.

Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer of NASA will welcome the arriving crew of the Expedition 52/53 who will spend more than four months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in December.

The soon-to-be six crew members of Expedition 52 will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the space station.