Expedition 50/51 Launches to Space Station on This Week @NASA – November 18, 2016
The Expedition 50/51 crew, including NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Nov. 17 eastern time, to begin a two-day flight to the International Space Station. Whitson, Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) are scheduled to join Expedition 50 commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, who all have been aboard the orbiting laboratory since October. Whitson will assume command of the station in February – making her the first woman to command the space station twice. Whitson and her Expedition 50 crewmates are scheduled to return to Earth next spring. Also, Supermoon Shines Bright, Newman Participates in Operation IceBridge, and Advanced Weather Satellite Mission Previewed!
