Big Thanksgiving lunch in space, three new astronauts to dock with Space Station

A busy Thanksgiving Day in space is underway as three new astronauts prepare to dock at the International Space Station (ISS) to join the current seven-member Expedition 73 crew. NASA astronaut Chris Williams, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, are set for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:57 p.m. IST on November 27. The trio will embark on an eight-month microgravity research mission aboard the station, expanding the crew to ten just over three hours after launch. Williams and Mikaev are making their first spaceflight, while Kud-Sverchkov is on his second mission to the orbital outpost. After orbiting the Earth twice inside the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, an automated docking with the ISS’s Rassvet module is scheduled for 5:08 p.m. IST.