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US-Russian Crew Blasts Off for Space Station With One Empty Seat


Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, right, speaks as U.S. astronaut Jack Fischer listens during a news conference in Kazakhstan, April 19, 2017.
Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, right, speaks as U.S. astronaut Jack Fischer listens during a news conference in Kazakhstan, April 19, 2017.

A scaled-down, two-man U.S.-Russian crew blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday for a six-hour ride to the International Space Station, a NASA TV broadcast showed.

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronaut Jack Fischer, 43, and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, 58, lifted off at 1:13 p.m. local time/3:13 a.m. EDT (0713 GMT) with a rare empty third seat. Russia is scaling back space station staffing until its long-delayed science laboratory is flown to the orbiting outpost next year.

On the job toilet training

Fischer and Yurchikhin were scheduled to reach the $100 billion space station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, at 9:23 a.m. EDT (1323 GMT).

Fischer said he suspects the biggest challenge he faces in his first voyage into space will be learning how to use the station's zero-gravity toilet.

“It’s all about suction, it’s really difficult,” Fischer said in a NASA interview before launch. “You just can’t train for that on the ground, so I approach my space-toilet activities with respect, preparation and a healthy dose of sheer terror.”

In this April 13, 2017, image from video made available by NASA, astronaut Peggy Whitson speaks during an interview aboard the International Space Station.
In this April 13, 2017, image from video made available by NASA, astronaut Peggy Whitson speaks during an interview aboard the International Space Station.

U.S. astronaut closing in on record

The rookie astronaut will be sharing the station with two seasoned veterans.

Soyuz crewmate Yurchikhin has made four previous spaceflights. Station commander Peggy Whitson, 57, in the midst of her third long-duration mission, is due on Monday to beat the 534-day record for cumulative time spent in space by a U.S. astronaut.

She is expected to receive a congratulatory phone call on Monday from U.S. President Donald Trump, NASA said on Wednesday.

Whitson, who flew to the station in November along with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, will remain aboard with Fischer and Yurchikhin until September.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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