By Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - A Vancouver-based company says it should be ready to take videos of big outdoor events on Earth from the International Space Station and put them on the Internet by the end of the year.

Scott Larson, the CEO of Urthecast, says two space cameras one that shoots photos, the other video will be sent up to the station on Oct. 16 on board a Russian spacecraft.

The cameras will be installed on the outside of the football-field-sized station at the end of October and are expected to start rolling a few months later once tests are completed.

"Around the last couple of weeks of December or the first couple of weeks of January is when we'll be able to officially turn stuff on and start showing all the streaming images," Larson told The Canadian Press.

He said there will be about a one-hour delay before the images taken by the space station cameras show up on Urthecast's website, but there will be lots to feast on.

"Anything that's one metre big is what you'll be able to see," he said. "You'll see if there are 10 people together in white shirts in a green field.

"If we decide there's something over a downtown that we want to see, we can point the video camera, hold it for about 90 seconds and then it goes on to the next target."

The cameras will be able to show flash mobs, outdoor events, stadiums, boats and planes, but Larson added that images like people's faces and licence plates will be too small to be visible.

The Urthecast executive also said people will be able to find out in advance when the space station and its cameras will be flying over their area.

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Cameras set for fall launch to space station and to start streaming by year-end

Website visitors from "International Space Station - Control Room" in Google Analytics in April fool

By: Xoshbin Ali

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Website visitors from "International Space Station - Control Room" in Google Analytics in April fool - Video

If nature is kind, the first detection of dark matter might be credited to the International Space Station soon.

Today (April 3), researchers announced the first science results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a $2 billion cosmic-ray particle detector mounted on the exterior of the football-field-size International Space Station. The instrument has observed a striking pattern of antimatter particles called positrons that may turn out to be a product of collisions between dark matter particles.

Though the findings are still uncertain, and the signal could also arise from a more mundane source, the data are, nonetheless, groundbreaking, experts said.

"I think it is fair to say that this is the most important physics result thus far to come from the International Space Station,"theoretical physicist Robert Garisto, who was not involved in the AMS project, wrote today on Twitter. [Photos: See the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in Space]

Garisto is editor of the physics journal Physical Review Letters, which published the AMS results in a paper released today.

No matter what the AMS measurements ultimately herald be it dark matter or something else the findings would not have been possible without the platform of the International Space Station, a $100 billion orbiting laboratory staffed full-time by teams of three to six astronauts. AMS collects cosmic-ray particles, which are abundant in space, though largely blocked on Earth by our planet's atmosphere.

In its first 18 months of operations, AMS detected about 30 billion cosmic rays, including 400,000 positrons a haul that allowed significantly more precise statistics than experiments conducted on Earth.

"It's a very major step forward by at least an order of magnitude in sensitivity," Brown University physicist Richard Gaitskell told SPACE.com. Gaitskell is a founding investigator on the Large Underground Xenon experiment, which aims to detect dark-matter particles directly underground in South Dakota.

Dark matter is an invisible substance thought to make up more than 80 percent of the matter in the universe. The elusive stuff is difficult to detect because it very rarely interacts with normal matter, except through its gravitational pull.

One of the leading explanations for dark matter is that it is made up of particles called WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles), which may produce a detectable signature when they collide and annihilate each other. This happens because WIMPs are thought to be their own antimatter partner particles. When matter and antimatter meet, they destroy each other, so if two WIMPs were to make contact, they would obliterate one another.

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Potential Dark Matter Discovery a Win for Space Station Science

Astronauts work to install the alpha magnetic spectrometer on the International Space Station on May 26, 2011.

Astronauts work to install the alpha magnetic spectrometer on the International Space Station on May 26, 2011.

An international team of researchers announced in Switzerland on Wednesday that an experiment on the International Space Station may have seen hints of something called dark matter. The finding could be a milestone in the decades-long search for the universe's missing material.

Only a tiny sliver of stuff in the universe is visible to scientists; the rest is dark matter. Researchers don't know what it is, but they know it's there. Its gravity pulls on the things we can see.

"We live in a sea of dark matter. Our galaxy is embedded in a huge roughly spherical halo of dark matter particles," says Michael Salamon, who is with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Salamon, who was part of the team behind Wednesday's announcement, says that dark matter is beyond anything predicted by current scientific theories.

"What that means is, if we detect dark matter and learn something about its nature, we will have made a major impact to our understanding of physics and nature itself," he says.

That's a big part of why scientists from 16 countries spent $2 billion building a detector designed to pick up any hint of this mystery material. Their Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer was carried into space two years ago and bolted onto the side of the International Space Station.

Researchers announced Wednesday the AMS has detected a large number of high-energy particles, which could be coming from collisions of dark matter. Theories suggest that when dark matter particles smash together, they annihilate one another. The enormous energy released creates visible particles, and it's these particles that might be showing up in the detector.

Sam Ting, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is responsible for the AMS, says this is only the beginning. As the AMS collects more particles, it should be able to tell whether they are coming from dark matter collisions.

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Sensor On Space Station May Have Seen Hints Of Elusive Dark Matter

NASA file

A fish-eye view of the International Space Station from July 2011 shows the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) in the foreground. A Russian Progress cargo ship and a Soyuz crew capsule are docked on the left end of the station. The structure extending to the left of the AMS is a thermal radiator. Off to the right, the shuttle Atlantis is docked to the station's Tranquility module.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Scientists say a $2 billion antimatter-hunting experiment on the International Space Station has detected its first hints of dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up almost a quarter of the universe.

The evidence from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, revealed Wednesday at Europe's CERN particle physics lab, is based on an excess in the cosmic production of anti-electrons, also known as positrons. The AMS research team can't yet rule out other explanations for the excess, but the fresh findings provide the best clues yet as to the nature of dark matter.

"Over the coming months, AMS will be able to tell us conclusively whether these positrons are a signal for dark matter, or whether they have some other origin," Samuel Ting, an astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who leads the international AMS collaboration, said in a CERN news release.

The results have been published in Physical Review Letters and were discussed during a NASA news conference.

Dark matter is so named because it hasn't been detected directly through electromagnetic emissions, but primarily through its gravitational effect. Precise measurements of the movements of galaxies and galaxy clusters, as well as studies of the big bang's afterglow, indicate that it accounts for 22.7 percent of the universe's content. Another mysterious factor known as dark energy makes up 72.8 percent, leaving just 4.5 percent for ordinary matter.

Scientists have theorized that ultra-high-energy collisions involving dark matter particles could produce more positrons than expected. The best places to detect such collisions are in huge underground experiments such as CERN's Large Hadron Collider or in outer space, where cosmic rays can be measured more easily than they are on Earth.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is the most sensitive cosmic-ray detector ever put into orbit. Researchers from 16 countries worked for well more than a decade to get AMS ready for the space station, but it literally took an act of Congress to get the extra money needed for the launch. The bus-sized device was brought up on the shuttle Endeavour and installed in 2011, during the shuttle fleet's second-last mission.

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Space station 's antimatter detector finds its first evidence of dark matter

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RAW VIDEO: A crew of two Russians and one American arrives on the International Space Station. The incoming crew plans to spend five months on board.

A new Russian-American crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday after a fast-track trip from Earth of under six hours, the swiftest ever manned journey to the orbiting laboratory.

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts opened the hatches of their Soyuz-TMA spaceship and floated into the ISS to a warm welcome from the three incumbent crew, live pictures broadcast on Russian television showed.

Russia's Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and American Chris Cassidy are now expected to spend the next five months aboard the station after their hitch-free launch and docking.

The International Space Station crew member US astronaut Chris Cassidy reacts after donning a space suit before the launch. Photo: Reuters

Their record-breaking trip from blast-off at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to docking with the ISS lasted less than six hours, slashing the usual travel time by some 45 hours.

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Previously, trips to the ISS had taken over two full days as spaceships orbited the Earth 30 times before docking with the space station.

However, under a new technique now employed by the Russian space agency with the help of new technology, the Soyuz capsule this time only orbited Earth four times before docking.

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Astronauts take record-breaking six-hour express ride to space station

When an alien parked a flying saucer at the International Space Station to say hello, astronaut Chris Hadfield turned to Twitter to report the earthshaking news. And if that sounds too good to be true that's because it is. Hadfield, it turns out, is a prankster.

Hadfield had a ball with April Fools' Day in space today (April 1), with the UFO stunt just one of his pranks. Earlier, the Canadian astronaut used his Twitter handle @Cmdr_Hadfield to post a photo of himself with space "grenades" he found on the station. It turns out, there were just harmless air sampling devices.

Over the course of seven hours, Hadfield wrote five posts on Twitter slowly revealing his elaborate April Fools' Day joke.

"The view from where we fly the Canadarm2, with some orbital debris off in the distance," Hadfield wrote. [7 Ways to Create a UFO Space Hoax]

The picture he posted to accompany that post shows him posing with a flying saucer-like object off in the distance.

His second photo is a little clearer, showing the UFO placed high above the Earth and on its way toward the space station.

"Orbital debris seems to be on a course moving a bit faster than ISS," Hadfield wrote. "I'll try to take more pictures if it swings by."

And "take" more pictures he did. The Canadian astronaut posted a photo of the flying saucer off in the distance with the orbiting laboratory's robotic arm in the foreground four hours after his initial post.

"Wow, what a huge piece of debris! Maybe I can grab it with the Canadarm2," Hadfield wrote.

Hadfield's grand finale showed the terrified looking commander holding a small green alien away from him with both hands.Quickly after that, Hadfield wrote: "The object appears to be coming closer to the Station. I think it might be trying to board us!"

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Astronaut Catches Alien on Space Station in April Fools' Prank

A new Russian-American crew arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) Friday after a fast-track trip from Earth of under six hours, the swiftest ever manned journey to the orbiting laboratory.

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts opened the hatches of their Soyuz-TMA spaceship and floated into the ISS to a warm welcome from the three incumbent crew, live pictures broadcast on Russian television showed.

Russia's Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and American Chris Cassidy are now expected to spend the next five months aboard the station after their hitch-free launch and docking.

Their record-breaking trip from blast-off at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to docking with the ISS lasted less than six hours, slashing the usual travel time by some 45 hours.

Previously, trips to the ISS had taken over two full days as spaceships orbited the Earth 30 times before docking with the space station.

However, under a new technique now employed by the Russian space agency with the help of new technology, the Soyuz capsule this time only orbited Earth four times before docking.

After blast-off at 2043 GMT Thursday, the Soyuz capsule docked with the ISS at 0228 GMT with the hatches opening just over two hours later.

The quick journey -- dubbed by NASA's official television commentator as a "chase into space" -- has been made possible by launching the Soyuz just after the ISS passes overhead in orbit.

After reaching orbit, the Soyuz capsule then had just over 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) to make up to catch up with the ISS, which the Soyuz achieved with newly-improved thrusters and manoeuvring.

The manned "express" flight comes after Russia successfully sent three unmanned Progress supply capsules in August, October and February to the station via the short six hour route rather than two days.

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New crew takes express ride to space station

Watch a Soyuz rocket lift off, sending three spacefliers to the International Space Station.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

A NASA astronaut and his two Russian crewmates made the fastest-ever trip to the International Space Station on Thursday, arriving less than six hours after launch.

In the past, it's taken two days for Soyuz spaceships to make the trip from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But mission planners worked out a more efficient procedure that made it possible for the Soyuz to catch up with the station in just four orbits, compared with more than 30 orbits under the previous flight plan.

Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, along with NASA's Chris Cassidy, rocketed into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m. ET Thursday (2:43 a.m. Friday local time). "The spacecraft is nominal, we feel great," Vinogradov, the spacecraft's commander, reported as the rocket ascended to orbit.

NASA launch commentator Josh Byerly hailed Thursday's flight, saying that the crew was "on the fast track" to the station.

The six-hour trip lasted roughly as long as an airplane flight from Seattle to Miami. NASA officials say the fast-rendezvous procedure minimizes thetime that crew members spend in the Soyuz's close quarters and gets them to the much roomier space station in better shape. The down side is that the three spacefliers had to spend most of the trip sitting elbow to elbow in bulky spacesuits which might strike a familiar chord for Seattle-to-Miami fliers.

The fast-track technique relies on a complicated round of orbital choreography that was tested three times over the past eight months, using unmanned Russian Progress cargo ships.

Last week, the space station raised its orbit by about a mile and a half (2.5 kilometers) to put it in the correct position for intercepting the Soyuz. The Soyuz had to be launched at just the right moment, to get into just the right orbit at just the right distance behind the station. To catch up with the station at the right time, the Soyuz had to execute a precisely timed series of thruster firings a task that was made easier by an upgrade to the spacecraft's automated navigation system.

"From a technical point of view, we feel pretty comfortable with this," Cassidy said at a pre-launch news briefing. "All of the procedures are very similar to what we do in a two-day process, and we've trained it a number of times."

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Fastest ride to space station

A Soyuz rocket successfully delivered a trio of new residents to the International Space Station on the first-ever "express" flight to the orbiting laboratory.

The Russian rocket carrying NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov docked with the station on time at 10:28 p.m. EDT (0228 March 29 GMT) while both spacecraft flew high over the Pacific Ocean after a history-making six-hour flight.

"Expedition 35 now has a six member crew on board the space station,"NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said during the space agency's live commentary of the docking.

It has been a long day for the crew. Because of the launch's accelerated timescale, Misurkin, Vinogradov and Cassidy will not have had the chance to rest for 20 hours by the time they settle in for the first night in their new home.

The Soyuz TMA-08M's launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome went smoothly with liftoff occurring at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT). The three spaceflyers will stay on board the orbiting outpost until they return to Earth in September. [Launch Photos: Soyuz Rocket's 'Express' Flight to Station]

Before now, manned trips to the space station have taken at least two days, but with the docking of this ship just six hours after liftoff, marks the beginning of a new kind of mission that saves time and money, NASA officials have said.

"In my opinion, our mission is just next little step on the way, on the way to the moon, Mars, and I am very happy to do this step," Misurkin said in a preflight interview with NASA.

Russia's unmanned Progress cargo ships have made these express dockings before, but using the method for a crewed flight prevents the spaceflyers from spending extra time in a crowded capsule. Officials with the NASA also explained that these trips save money because a quicker flight means that Mission Control personnel will be on duty for a shorter amount of time.

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New US-Russian Crew Docks at Space Station After Super-Fast Flight

Watch a Soyuz rocket lift off, sending three spacefliers to the International Space Station.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

A NASA astronaut and his two Russian crewmates made the fastest-ever trip to the International Space Station on Thursday, arriving less than six hours after launch.

In the past, it's taken two days for Soyuz spaceships to make the trip from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. But mission planners worked out a more efficient procedure that made it possible for the Soyuz to catch up with the station in just four orbits, compared with more than 30 orbits under the previous flight plan.

Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, along with NASA's Chris Cassidy, rocketed into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:43 p.m. ET Thursday (2:43 a.m. Friday local time). "The spacecraft is nominal, we feel great," Vinogradov, the spacecraft's commander, reported as the rocket ascended to orbit.

NASA launch commentator Josh Byerly hailed Thursday's flight, saying that the crew was "on the fast track" to the station.

The six-hour trip lasted roughly as long as an airplane flight from Seattle to Miami. NASA officials say the fast-rendezvous procedure minimizes thetime that crew members spend in the Soyuz's close quarters and gets them to the much roomier space station in better shape. The down side is that the three spacefliers had to spend most of the trip sitting elbow to elbow in bulky spacesuits which might strike a familiar chord for Seattle-to-Miami fliers.

The fast-track technique relies on a complicated round of orbital choreography that was tested three times over the past eight months, using unmanned Russian Progress cargo ships.

Last week, the space station raised its orbit by about a mile and a half (2.5 kilometers) to put it in the correct position for intercepting the Soyuz. The Soyuz had to be launched at just the right moment, to get into just the right orbit at just the right distance behind the station. To catch up with the station at the right time, the Soyuz had to execute a precisely timed series of thruster firings a task that was made easier by an upgrade to the spacecraft's automated navigation system.

"From a technical point of view, we feel pretty comfortable with this," Cassidy said at a pre-launch news briefing. "All of the procedures are very similar to what we do in a two-day process, and we've trained it a number of times."

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Soyuz launch sends US-Russian crew on fastest ride to space station

By Steve Gutterman and Irene Klotz

MOSCOW/CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut took a short cut to the International Space Station on Thursday, arriving at the orbital outpost less than six hours after their Soyuz capsule blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The express route, used for the first time to fly a crew to the station, shaved about 45 hours off the usual ride, allowing NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin to get a jumpstart on their planned 5.5-month mission.

The crew's Soyuz capsule parked itself at the station's Poisk module at 10:28 p.m. EDT (0228 GMT Friday), just five hours and 45 minutes after launch.

All previous station crews, whether flying aboard NASA's now-retired space shuttles or on Russian Soyuz capsules, took at least two days to reach the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 250 miles above Earth.

"The closer the station, the better we feel. Everything is going good," the cosmonauts radioed to flight controllers outside of Moscow as the Soyuz capsule approached the orbital outpost, a project of 15 nations.

On hand to greet the new crew were Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield, with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

Russia tested the expedited route, which required very precise steering maneuvers, during three unmanned station cargo flights before allowing a crew to attempt it.

"Ballistics is a difficult thing. If for some reason you are not able to correct the orbit of the station or they have to avoid space debris ... that can disrupt this method," said Igor Lisov, an expert at the Russian publication Novosti Kosmonavtiki.

The advantage, however, is that the crew doesn't have to stay for two days inside the cramped Soyuz capsule. It also means they can arrive before any disabling effects of adapting to microgravity, which can include nausea, dizziness and vomiting, and that medical experiments and samples can arrive at the station sooner, enhancing science results.

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Russian-American crew taking short cut to space station

Updated 11:13 PM ET

A veteran Russian commander, a rookie cosmonaut and a Navy SEAL-turned-astronaut rocketed into space Thursday and glided to a smooth docking with the International Space Station less than six hours later, a record-setting rendezvous being tested to reduce the time crew members have to spend cooped up inside the cramped Soyuz ferry craft.

Soyuz TMA-08M commander Pavel Vinogradov, flight engineer Alexander Misurkin and shuttle veteran Christopher Cassidy blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:43:20 p.m. EDT Thursday (GMT-4; 2:43 a.m. Friday local time).

Launching almost directly into the plane of the space station's orbit, the Soyuz rocket quickly accelerated away atop a churning jet of fiery exhaust, trailing the space station by about 1,056 miles at the moment of liftoff.

Live television views from inside the command module showed Vinogradov in the cockpit's center seat, flanked by Misurkin to his left and Cassidy to his right. All three crew members appeared relaxed as they monitored the computer-orchestrated ascent.

"Everything's completely nominal up here on the spacecraft," Vinogradov reported at one point. "We feel great."

Just under nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz TMA-08 spacecraft was released into its planned orbit, followed a few moments later by deployment of the craft's solar panels and antennas.

Vladimir Popovkin, director general of the Russian federal space agency, radioed his compliments.

"Congratulations on having successfully completed stage one," he called. "We're standing by to have you guys come close to the station in about six hours from now."

"Thank you, Mr. Popovkin," Vinogradov replied.

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Soyuz launched on four-orbit flight to space station

A Soyuz rocket carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts roared into space today on the first-ever "express" flight to the International Space Station.

The rocket launched NASA astronautChris Cassidyand Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov into orbit at 4:43 p.m. EDT(2043 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the local time was early Friday. The crew's Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft is expected to make history when it arrives at the space station later tonight.

The Soyuz crew plans to dock at the space station's Poisk module tonight at 10:32 pm EDT (0232 GMT Friday). You can watch the space docking live on SPACE.com here.

Until today, Soyuz and NASA shuttle trips to the space station typically took at least two days, but Cassidy, Misurkin and Vinogradov are due toarrive in just six hours, after making only four orbits of Earth. Some NASA officials have dubbed the flight profile, the "express" flight to the International Space Station.

"I think this is a very good thing that we are decreasing the time that it takes for crews to reach the International Space Station," Vinogradov said in a pre-launch interview. "I'm confident that both in Russia and in the United States we have excellent teams that are supporting us." [Launch Photos: Soyuz Rocket's 'Express' Flight to Station]

The quick trip to the space station has been made before by unmanned cargo spacecraft, but never by a crew. Mission managers say its benefits include less time spent in a cramped space by the crew, and a savings on expenses related to the personnel needed in Mission Control when Soyuz is flying.

Once there, they will join the existing station residents commander Chris Hadfield of Canada, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn on the station'sExpedition 35 mission. The newcomers are due to stay in space for about six months.

"It's shaping up to be a very dynamic and a very busy expedition," Cassidy said during a pre-launch interview. "We welcome that that makes us feel very rewarded and high job satisfaction. When you can deliver for people that have worked hard to produce all of those activities on the ground, that's very satisfying," he said of the ability to fulfill the goals of the Mission Control team.

Cassidy and Vinogradov are both spaceflight veterans: The former flew on the STS-127 space shuttle mission in 2009, while Vinogradov visited the Russian Mir space station in 1997 and theInternational Space Stationin 2006. Misurkin, a spaceflight rookie, is making his first journey to orbit.

"I'm just really excited and looking forward to this flight," he said in a preflight interview. "I think it would be a great experience for me and the biggest thing in my whole life."

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Astronauts Launch on First 'Express' Flight to Space Station

NASA

At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy (right), Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov (center) and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin clasp hands for photographers prior to the start of qualification simulation runs in a Soyuz spacecraft mock-up on March 5, 2013.

By Clara MoskowitzSpace.com

Three men are poised to make history today when they blast off on a rocket ride Thursdaythat will reach the International Space faster than any astronauts to fly there before.

NASA astronautChris Cassidyand Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov are due to arrive at the orbiting laboratory just six hours after they launch at 4:43 p.m. EDT. The liftoff will begin a months-long mission in orbit for the three men.

The trio will blast off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The mission's Soyuz rocket rolled out to the launch pad on Tuesdayto prepare for today's liftoff.

You can watch the launch live here onSpace.com's NASA TV feed beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

In the nearly 13 years since crews first began launching to the International Space Station, it has taken Russian Soyuz capsules and U.S. space shuttles about two days to reach the orbiting lab after liftoff. Now, NASA and Russia's Federal Space Agency are testing out anew, accelerated schedule. [Soyuz's 1-Day Trip to Space Station Explained (Infographic)]

The quick journey, which takes just four orbits of Earth, has been carried out by recent unmanned cargo spacecraft visiting the space station, but never by a crew.

NASA / Carla Cioffi

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New crew set to zip up to space station in just 6 hours

NASA

At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy (right), Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov (center) and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin clasp hands for photographers prior to the start of qualification simulation runs in a Soyuz spacecraft mock-up on March 5, 2013.

By Clara MoskowitzSpace.com

Three men are poised to make history today when they blast off on a rocket ride Thursdaythat will reach the International Space faster than any astronauts to fly there before.

NASA astronautChris Cassidyand Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov are due to arrive at the orbiting laboratory just six hours after they launch at 4:43 p.m. EDT. The liftoff will begin a months-long mission in orbit for the three men.

The trio will blast off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The mission's Soyuz rocket rolled out to the launch pad on Tuesdayto prepare for today's liftoff.

You can watch the launch live here onSpace.com's NASA TV feed beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

In the nearly 13 years since crews first began launching to the International Space Station, it has taken Russian Soyuz capsules and U.S. space shuttles about two days to reach the orbiting lab after liftoff. Now, NASA and Russia's Federal Space Agency are testing out anew, accelerated schedule. [Soyuz's 1-Day Trip to Space Station Explained (Infographic)]

The quick journey, which takes just four orbits of Earth, has been carried out by recent unmanned cargo spacecraft visiting the space station, but never by a crew.

NASA / Carla Cioffi

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Ultra-fast ride to space station

Ramil Sitdikov / AFP - Getty Images

NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy gets his spacesuit checked prior to Thursday's launch to the International Space Station. Straps bind Cassidy's knees close to his chest, in the position he'll have to maintain during most of the six-hour trip.

By James Oberg, NBC News Space Analyst

The speedier ride that three spacefliers are taking into orbit on Thursday will get them aboard the roomy International Space Station a lot sooner than on previous Soyuz space missions. It will lower the demand on expensive support teams back on Earth. But there's also an uncomfortable aspect to the shorter flight plan.

That aspect has to do with the Russian-made emergency pressure suits that crew members wear for launch aboard the Soyuz spacecraft. In the past, spacefliers put on the suits several hours before launch, and wore them for about three hours in flight long enough to perform the early rocket maneuvers. Then they took off the suits and put them away until docking, two days later. During most of the trip, the travelers could stretch out in the orbital module, a roomier area of the Soyuz spacecraft.

The situation is different for NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov, the newest crew members to head for the space station. Their trip is taking six hours rather than two days, thanks to a more exacting strategy for orbital navigation. The Soyuz launch from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is scheduled for 4:43 p.m. ET, and arrival at the station is set for 10:31 p.m. ET.

Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station manager, said the flight plan has the benefit of reducing the "amount of time the crew has to spend in a small environment before they get to the ISS." But that six-hour trip will be more intense.

Long stretch in the suits The trio will be wearing their Sokol pressure suits as an essential safety measure, to ensure against the kind of catastrophe that killed three unprotected cosmonauts in 1971 when their cabin suffered an air leak. But the suits are notoriously uncomfortable: They're designedto fit snugly into the tight crew seats, where knees are shoved halfway up to the chest. Arm mobility is restricted to being able to hold a stick to poke critical controls. Oxygen is fed into the suits via short hoses from a nearby console.

It takes hours to remove the suits and clean them, and at least an hour to put them back on and verify pressurization. There's not time for all that during a six-hour trip. As a result, the crew members will have to wear the suits for a much longer period that begins before launch and doesn't end until after docking.

"They are definitely going to have to go to a very tolerant mental system to do this," one former NASA astronaut told NBC News. The spaceflier, who has experience with Soyuz hardware and the Sokol spacesuit, spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak out publicly.

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Revised ride to space station may be faster – but it's also less comfortable

At the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, Expedition 35/36 Flight Engineer Chris Cassidy (right), Soyuz Commander Pavel Vinogradov (center) and Flight Engineer Alexander Misurkin clasp hands for photographers prior to the sNASA

Large gantry mechanisms on either side of the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft are raised into position to secure the rocket at the launch pad on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Liftoff is set for March 28 EDT (March 2NASA/Carla Cioffi

After blasting off on a Russian rocket ride Thursday, March 28, three men are poised to make history by reaching the International Space Station faster than any astronauts to fly there before.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov launched at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT), beginning a months-long mission in orbit for the three men. They are due to arrive at the orbiting laboratory just six hours after launch.

The trio blasted off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The mission's Soyuz rocket rolled out to the launch pad on Tuesday, March 26, to prepare for today's liftoff.

- NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy

In the nearly 13 years since crews first began launching to the International Space Station, it has taken Russian Soyuz capsules and U.S. space shuttles about two days to reach the orbiting lab after liftoff. Now, NASA and Russia's Federal Space Agency are testing out a new, accelerated schedule. [Soyuz's 1-Day Trip to Space Station Explained (Infographic)]

The quick journey, which takes just four orbits of Earth, has been carried out by recent unmanned cargo spacecraft visiting the space station, but never by a crew.

"The four-orbit rendezvous has the advantage of a very short period of time from launch to docking," Mike Suffredini, NASA's International Space Station program manager, said of the mission. "It reduces the amount of time the crew has to spend in a small environment before they get to ISS."

Cassidy, Misurkin and Vinogradov are planning to join the station's Expedition 35 mission for a roughly six-month stay. The current residents of the outpost are commander Chris Hadfield of Canada, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn.

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New space station crew to launch and dock today in cosmic first

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-man crew blasted off from a launch pad in the steppes of Kazakhstan, for the first time taking a shorter path to the International Space Station.

Instead of the two-day approach maneuver used by Soyuz spacecraft in the past, this journey to the station would take NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin just under six hours.

The Soyuz TMA-08M lifted off on time from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome at 2:43 a.m. Friday (2043 GMT; 4:43 p.m. EDT Thursday). It's set to dock at the space outpost at 10:32 p.m. EDT Thursday (0232 GMT Friday).

The trio are "on a fast track to the international space station," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said, adding moments after the launch that all was going well.

The new maneuver has been tested successfully by three Russian Progress cargo ships, an unmanned version of the Soyuz used to ferry supplies to the space station.

Vinogradov joked at a pre-launch news conference at Baikonur that the journey to the station would be so quick that it could allow the crew to even carry ice cream as a present to the three men currently manning the orbiting outpost.

"It wouldn't melt in such a short time," he said.

On a more serious note, Vinogradov added that the shorter flight path would reduce the crew's fatigue and allow astronauts to be in top shape for the docking. He said that it takes about five hours for the human body to start feeling the impact of zero gravity, so the quicker flight would allow the crew to more easily adapt to weightlessness in much roomier space station interiors.

The downside of the accelerated rendezvous is that the crew will have to stay in their spacesuits, which they don hours before the launch, through the entire approach maneuver.

Other Russian cosmonauts in the past have described the two-day approach maneuver in the cramped Soyuz as one of the most grueling parts of missions to the orbiting station. The spheroid orbiting capsule allows the crew to take off their bulky spacesuits, change into more comfortable clothes and use a toilet, but its interior is extremely confined.

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US-Russian crew blasts off for space station

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

A police helicopter flies next to the Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft as it is transported to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 26. The Soyuz will carry NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy along with Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin to the International Space Station.

By James Oberg, NBC News Space Analyst

For more than 30 years, Russian spaceships have taken two days to dock with their target but on Thursday, the travel time for a Soyuz capsule carrying three spacefliers to the International Space Station is being trimmed to six hours.

Has the Soyuz suddenly become speedier? Not really.

The Soyuz itself won't fly any faster when it's sent into space at 4:43 p.m. ET from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It won't have any fundamentally new or improved guidance and navigation system. "All the systems of the vehicle are the same, but the work is more intense," Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, the Soyuz's commander, said last week during a news briefing. "There are no new systems or modes in the vehicle, but the coordination work of the crew should be better."

This faster flight plan is possible only because someone else is doing the real work. The space station itself has shifted its position to be nearer to the Soyuz when that spacecraft goes into orbit. It is quite literally moving itself right in front of the speeding Soyuz.

The rapid rendezvous procedure has already been tested twice with robotic supply flights, but this is the first time it's been used with a crewed spacecraft. If it works, the crew should be docking with the station at 10:31 p.m. ET Thursday, taking the fastest ride to an orbital destination since NASA's Skylab missions, 40 years ago.

Hunter and hunted Chasing down a target in the trackless void of space is not as simple as merely catching sight of it and thrusting towards it. The inflexible rules of orbital mechanics motion along orbital paths demand precise timing of critical course changes on the part of the vehicle that's doing the chasing.

For any space rendezvous, the first critical time is the moment when the chasers launch pad passes below the targets circular orbit. If the chaser is launched during this moment and heads in a direction parallel to the target's orbital course, it winds up more or less in the same orbital plane as the target. That's the "planar window" for a launch.

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Space station shifts its orbit to make speedy crew rendezvous possible