#sets stage

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft departs from the International Space Station's Poisk Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM2) and heads toward a landing in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 11, 2013 (Kazakhstan time). On Friday Aug. 28, 2015, Expedition 44 crew will move the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Poisk module to the Zvezda docking port. Image Credits: NASA. The relocation will free up the Poisk module for the docking of a new Soyuz vehicle, designated TMA-18M, carrying three additional crew members, and scheduled to launch to the station Wednesday, Sept. 2 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Aboard will be Expedition 45 crew member Sergei Volkov of Roscosmos, and visiting crew members Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency. Mogensen and Aimbetov will return to Earth with Padalka on Saturday, Sept. 12 in the Soyuz TMA-16M. In March 2016, the Soyuz TMA-18M will return with Volkov, as well as one-year mission crew members Kelly and Kornienko, who arrived on station in March  to begin collecting biomedical data crucial to NASA’s human journey to Mars. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station One-year mission Crew: http://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Kathryn Hambleton/Johnson Space Cente/Dan Huot/Gina Anderson. Best regards, Orbiter.ch Full article

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jul 07, 2015 The first International Docking Adapter headed to the International Space Station on Sunday will be a physical connecting point for spacecraft, but for NASA it will be a metaphorical gateway to a future in which crews go to the station aboard America's first new, human-rated spacecraft since the space shuttle. The adapter, designated IDA-1, was built by Boeing and has been loaded into the Full article