Soyuz spacecraft

Soyuz spacecraft

The Soyuz TMA-03M has now been in space for more than a day, travelling at 28000 km/h, the spacecraft orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes. The International Space Station is still one day away – the spacecraft makes various manoeuvres raising its orbit and aligning it with the station in preparation for rendezvous and docking. In all the Soyuz will orbit earth 35 times before docking with ISS at 16:22 CET (15:22 UT) on Friday.

Shortly after launch, once they confirmed the health of their spacecraft, the crew of three opened the hatch to the Orbital Module – with a volume of just 7.2 m3, this acts as the crew’s very cramped living module during the 2 days they are chasing the ISS. Here they removed their Russian Sokol spacesuit and changed into normal clothing.

See the Soyuz pass overhead

If the skies are clear where you are, you may even be able to spot the Soyuz at dusk as it flies overhead – following behind a brighter ISS. Enter your location and closest city under sighting opportunities and look up!