SOYUZ MS-11 LAUNCH AND DOCKING, Dec 3, 2018, Kazakhstan, Launch: 6:31 am ET (NASA TV begins 5:30 am ET), Dock 12:36 pm ET (NASA TV begins 11:45 am ET)

The next crew will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz MS-11 on December 3, 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:31 am ET (5:31 pm local time at the launch site).

NASA TV and NASA Live will air the launch beginning at 5:30 am ET.  Russia’s space agency Roscosmos also often provides live coverage on its website: roscosmos.ru

This will be the first crew launch since the October 11, 2018 Soyuz MS-10 failure.  In that case, the launch was aborted about 2 minutes after liftoff when one of the four strap-on boosters did not separate from the core stage correctly.  It hit the core stage, which was catastrophic for the rocket, but automated systems instantly separated the crew capsule, carrying a Russian cosmonaut and an American astronaut, from the  rocket and they landed safely.

The Soyuz MS-11 crew was originally supposed to launch on December 20, but because the MS-10 crew did not get to ISS, and Russia believes it has found and corrected the problem, it moved up the date for the MS-11 crew.  The three crew members are:

• Oleg Kononenko (Roscosmos)
• Anne McClain (NASA)
• David Saint-Jacques (Canadian Space Agency)

They will use the four-orbit (approximately 6-hour) rendezvous trajectory to ISS, docking at 12:36 pm ET (NASA coverage begins at 11:45 am ET on the NASA TV media channel).  Hatch opening is scheduled for 2:35 pm ET (NASA TV coverage begins 1:45 pm ET).

In summary:

Launch 6:31 am ET (NASA coverage begins 5:30 am ET)

Docking 12:36 pm ET (NASA coverage begins 11:45 am ET on the media channel)

Hatch opening 2:35 pm ET (NASA coverage begins 1:45 pm ET)

Note: the docking time has been refined by 1 minute.  It is at 12:36 instead of 12:35 pm ET.