Earlier today on March 21st, 2018 Soyuz MS-08 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a new crew of 3, Oleg Artemyev, Andrew J. Feustel, and Richard R. Arnold, to the International Space Station. The Soyuz spacecraft is taking the 2 day route, as opposed to the 6 hour rendezvous and docking method used during optimal launch timing conditions.
The booster for this launch was, of course, the legendary Soyuz, in this case the Soyuz FG configuration – a standard workhorse booster which has been sending Soyuz vehicles to the international Space Station regularly since 2002.
This launch in particular was a night launch, and was quite a beauty. The live feed from NASA.tv was pretty typical (not in a bad way) but the footage after the fact has been quite impressive, and I love sharing it here for those who enjoy these kinds of things.
Enjoy!
First off we have a launch compilation with some amazing views.
Next up, we have the live launch feeds from Roskosmos, and NASA.tv! Two separate but related views of the same flight – one in Russian for that raw experience and the other with NASA commentary for the more traditional experience we in the US know and love.