Soyuz TMA-13M rocket is launched with Expedition 40 on board

The Soyuz TMA-13M rocket is launched with Expedition 40 Soyuz Commander Maxim Suraev, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst, of the European Space Agency, ESA, and Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA in the early hours of Thursday, May 29, 2014 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Suraev, Gerst, and Wiseman will spend the next five and a half months aboard the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Expedition 40 Preflight: Soyuz TMA-13M Launcher Rolls Out

The Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft is rolled out to the launch pad by train on Monday, May 26, 2014, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for May 29 and will send Expedition 40 Roscosmos commander Maxim Suraev, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman on a five and a half month mission aboard the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

ISS Expedition 40 ready to go Soyuz TMA-13M launch

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in Soyuz TMA-13M, the spacecraft that will carry him, Roscosmos commander Maxim Suraev, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman to the International Space Station on 28 May 2014. 

Five days before launch, the Expedition 40/41 astronauts took one last look at their spacecraft in the scaffolding. 

The next day it was rolled out to the pad for the flight to space. 

Credit: ESA

From unusual training to upholding cherished traditions, everything is being done to ensure that ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and his crewmates arrive at the International Space Station on Thursday safely and in good health – including being flipped upside down and relieving themselves on the wheel of a bus.

The crew landed at the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan two weeks before the 28 May launch and continue preparing themselves for the disorientation of living in weightlessness.

Russian physicians believe that tilting astronauts heads-down and spinning them in chairs gives balance organs a first taste of the confusion they will experience in weightlessness.

Most astronauts suffer space sickness during the first days in orbit as their bodies adapt to the new environment, rather like sea sickness.

The brain and other organs receive conflicting signals in weightlessness – Alexander's eyes will signal that he is moving around the Space Station but his sense of motion will report the opposite.

However, crews must operate the Soyuz immediately after launch and then start work as soon as they board the Space Station.

During the first days in space many human physiology experiments study how the body adapts to the new environment.

Crews are quarantined before launch, as contact with people other than physicians and key personnel is kept to a minimum. A simple cold puts the whole mission at risk and Alexander has been training 2.5 years for his flight.

The Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft is rolled out by train from its MIK preparation building to the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad on Monday 26 May 2014 in Kazakhstan. 

Credit: ESA–S. Corvaja, 2014

Western Sahara taken from the International Space Station

Image Credit: NASA

On May 23, 2014, Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson posted this photograph -- taken from the International Space Station -- to Instagram. 

Swanson noted, “Western Sahara – the contrast between the sand and the water is spectacular from here.”

Swanson uploaded the first image from space to Instagram on April 7. 

Steve Swanson

He began posting imagery to the social media site during his pre-flight training.

The three Expedition 40 crew members aboard the International Space Station worked advanced science this week while awaiting a new trio, set to lift off on Wednesday, May 28.

Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European astronaut Alexander Gerst will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft at 3:57 p.m. EDT (1:57 a.m. May 29 Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Preparations for Expedition 40/41 Launch to International Space Station

Image Credit: NASA

Three new Expedition 40/41 crew members are counting down to their May 28, 2014 (U.S. time) launch to the orbital laboratory.

The trio is in its crew quarters at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, finalizing mission preparations.

Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European astronaut Alexander Gerst will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft at 3:57 p.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Alexander Gerst

They are scheduled to dock to Rassvet after just four orbits at 9:48 p.m. returning the space station to its full complement of six crew members.

Pictured here, Wiseman gives the thumbs up during launch preparations on May 19 in Kazakhstan.