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The Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft for the next International Space Station (ISS) crew of Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Oleg Novitskiy of Russia and Thomas Pesquet of France, is transported from an assembling hangar to the launchpad ahead of its upcoming launch, at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, November 14, 2016. A new trio of space flyers is gearing up to launch toward the International Space Station (ISS). Launching atop a Soyuz rocket, the crew in their Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft is slated to leave terra firma at 2:20 a.m. local Kazakh time Nov. 18 (3:20 p.m. EST / 20:20 GMT Nov. 17) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio – Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson – will take the standard 34-orbit rendezvous path to the ISS rather than the quicker 4-orbit route. As such, the three will spend nearly two days inside the cramped capsule before arriving at the outpost on Nov. 19. Once aboard, they will reside there for some five months as part of Expeditions 50 and 51. The trio will join Roscosmos cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov as well as NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough to bring the ISS crew complement back up to six to round out the year. After the crew settles in, in December, the outpost will be gearing up for a busy period of visiting vehicle arrivals. Additionally, in January, a number at least two spacewalks will be performed to upgrade the space station’s batteries. Noteworthy, this will be the final time for at least a year that a six-person crew will form an expedition. Starting with MS-04, Russia will be reducing its station crew size from three to two, bringing the maximum to five. This reduction will continue until Russia launches its long-delayed science module, called “Nauka”, which is currently planned for late 2017 or early 2018. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
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