UEC Engines Ensured Successful Launch of Soyuz MS-12 Spacecraft

UEC Engines Ensured Successful Launch of Soyuz MS-12 Spacecraft

The RD-107A and RD-108A are the first and second stage propulsion thrust engines, manufactured at the Kuznetsov enterprise in Samara of the United Engine Corporation (UEC), ensured the successful launch of Soyuz-FG launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-12 manned crew transport vehicle (MCTV).

The launch was made from the site No. 1 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Gagarinsky Start) at 22:14 Moscow time on March 14th. Members of the Roskosmos cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and NASA astronauts Nick Haig and Christina Cook were on board of the MCTV on the ISS-59/60 long-term space mission to the International Space Station.

The crew went onboard the ISS after the Soyuz MS-12 ship approached the station according to the four-turn scheme and it was successfully docked to the docking site of the Rassvet small research module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.

The convergence was conducted in automatic mode under the supervision of specialists from the Main Operations Group of the Russian segment of the ISS in the Mission Control Center and the Russian crew members of the transport ship and station.

Soyuz MS-12 delivered 126.9 kg of various goods: resource equipment, habitat monitoring equipment, equipment for conducting experiments, means of life support, and cosmonauts' personal belongings. More than 60 experiments are planned during the expedition of ISS-59/60, including two new joint studies: "Adamant" and "s-FLAME" to study the combustion processes in microgravity conditions.