NASA Astronaut Chris Williams Joins Crew at International Space Station
Aboard the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, NASA astronaut Chris Williams safely docked with the International Space Station on Thursday morning, bringing a new trio of crew members to the orbiting laboratory. Alongside Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, Williams expanded the station's crew to 10 for the next two weeks.
The spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:27 a.m. EST (2:27 p.m. Baikonur time), embarking on a three-hour journey that would take it to the space station's Rassvet module. Following a successful docking at 7:34 a.m., Williams, Kud-Sverchkov, and Mikaev will now be welcomed by the Expedition 73 crew.
The new arrivals are expected to meet with their colleagues in the coming hours, as the Expedition 74 handover ceremony is scheduled for Monday, December 8. The current Expedition 73 crew, including NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and Jonny Kim, will conclude an eight-month science mission on the space station.
During his stay on the International Space Station, Williams will conduct a range of scientific research and technology demonstrations aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth. He will focus on installing a new modular workout system for long-duration missions, supporting experiments to improve cryogenic fuel efficiency, growing semiconductor crystals in space, and assisting NASA in designing new re-entry safety protocols.
Viewers can tune in to NASA's live coverage of the hatch opening ceremony at 9:50 a.m., which will be broadcast on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube. The change of command ceremony is also scheduled for Sunday, December 7, at 10:25 a.m.
Aboard the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, NASA astronaut Chris Williams safely docked with the International Space Station on Thursday morning, bringing a new trio of crew members to the orbiting laboratory. Alongside Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, Williams expanded the station's crew to 10 for the next two weeks.
The spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:27 a.m. EST (2:27 p.m. Baikonur time), embarking on a three-hour journey that would take it to the space station's Rassvet module. Following a successful docking at 7:34 a.m., Williams, Kud-Sverchkov, and Mikaev will now be welcomed by the Expedition 73 crew.
The new arrivals are expected to meet with their colleagues in the coming hours, as the Expedition 74 handover ceremony is scheduled for Monday, December 8. The current Expedition 73 crew, including NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and Jonny Kim, will conclude an eight-month science mission on the space station.
During his stay on the International Space Station, Williams will conduct a range of scientific research and technology demonstrations aimed at advancing human space exploration and benefiting life on Earth. He will focus on installing a new modular workout system for long-duration missions, supporting experiments to improve cryogenic fuel efficiency, growing semiconductor crystals in space, and assisting NASA in designing new re-entry safety protocols.
Viewers can tune in to NASA's live coverage of the hatch opening ceremony at 9:50 a.m., which will be broadcast on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube. The change of command ceremony is also scheduled for Sunday, December 7, at 10:25 a.m.
! This is such an amazing opportunity for him to do some serious sciency stuff and help us learn more about space exploration 
. And can we talk about how cool it's gonna be to see these three new astronauts meet with their colleagues on Monday? It's like, a whole new level of space station squad goals 
! The fact that Chris is gonna be working on some pretty cutting-edge tech and research projects is just, like, whoa 
. I'm literally counting down the minutes until his hatch opening ceremony on Saturday... 9:50 a.m. can't come soon enough 
!
Like this one guy walking his dog and the dog just pulled out of his collar like it had a mind of its own lol 
anyway back to space stuff did u no that NASA just added some new modules to their spaceship to help with recycling water in space? 
It's soooo cool 
. btw, 8 months is a looong time to be stuck in space, gotta feel for those astronauts, they're basically pioneers of our future 
I'm hyped to see what kind of research they're gonna do in space! Installing a new workout system sounds like it's gonna be lit 
, and growing crystals is actually kinda cool 
. I wonder how long it'll take for them to figure out the re-entry safety thing... hope everything goes smoothly 
I mean, can you even imagine being one of those astronauts? They get to live in space for like two weeks and do all these amazing experiments that help us learn more about space and life on Earth. 
My guess is he'll be super busy, but it's awesome that he gets to contribute to all these cool projects 
He's gonna do some sick sci-experiments up in space 
. I wish Mike Fincke & co. had a longer stay, they must've been having so much fun 
. Also, can't wait to see Chris Williams' reactions when he sees the Earth from space 
He's gonna be super busy conducting all sorts of cool science experiments and tech demos up there! 
& of course, who doesn't love watching a space workout session? 
so its finally happening! 
thats gonna change our lives somehow... maybe not tomorrow morning but who knows 
what i really wanna know is when are they gonna start living in space 365 days a year? 
no more vacation homes or beach trips 
just floating around the galaxy 
so great to see another new face in space, i mean, it's not like we're still waiting for humans to return from the moon... anyway, nasa astronaut chris williams is on board now, yay! 
. anyone know if they'll have decent wifi up in space? 
anyway i heard they're working on some super cool tech for re-entry safety protocols, which is so needed considering all the recent issues 
hope they get it figured out soon 
And don't even get me started on those cryogenic fuel experiments... who needs super-efficient rocket engines when we've got Netflix 
. And what's up with the handover ceremony on December 8? Can't they just have a virtual meetup to make things easier? Plus, why do we need re-entry safety protocols? It sounds super boring 
. Just another bunch of astronauts floating around up there, doing who-knows-what experiments... Meanwhile, the platform itself is still riddled with issues 
. I mean, have you tried to stream live coverage from the ISS on YouTube lately? Forget about it, it's always buffering and lagging out 
. Can't they just fix the streaming tech instead of sending more people up there to play scientist? 
