Watch Next Space Station Crew Launch Live on NASA TV, NASA App News provided by Share this article Share this article WASHINGTON, April 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Three space travelers, including NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, are poised to launch Friday, April 9, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. NASA Television, the agency's website, and the NASA app will provide comprehensive prelaunch and launch-to-docking coverage. Joining Vande Hei aboard the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft will be Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos for launch at 3:42 a.m. EDT (12:42 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on a two-orbit, three-hour journey to dock to the station's Rassvet module. Launch coverage will begin at 2:45 a.m. This will be the second spaceflight for Vande Hei, the third for Novitskiy, and the first for Dubrov. The launch comes three days before the 60th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's launch to become the first human in space and the 40th anniversary of the first launch of NASA's space shuttle.