Soyuz - MS-27 - Soyuz 2.1a

Video from the channel Space Replay about Soyuz 2.1a, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 24:21. Language: English. Video type: Livestream.

The recording captures the broadcast of the launch of the crewed Soyuz MS-27 mission aboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, bound for the International Space Station. After several initial minutes of music, an English-speaking commentator follows the countdown and ascent, interspersed with the Russian communications between mission control and the crew, made up of Kim, Ryzhikov and Zubritsky.

About four minutes before liftoff, the spacecraft's systems switch to internal control and the crew close their helmet visors and breathe oxygen from their suits for the rest of the countdown. The fuel lines and engines are purged with nitrogen to remove fuel and oxidizer vapors. The commentator explains that the launch is timed to the moment when Earth's rotation brings the cosmodrome into the station's orbital plane, inclined 51.6 degrees, with a narrow 14.6-degree phase angle that allows a fast two-orbit rendezvous.

In the final minutes the rocket's tanks are pressurized, ground propellant feed is cut at T-1 min 40 s, the Soyuz switches to internal power, and the two umbilicals retract before the automatic ignition sequence begins. After ignition and liftoff, the vehicle heads northeast and executes its roll, pitch and yaw program. At one minute into the flight, the station passes over Baikonur while the rocket goes through the region of maximum dynamic pressure. The first-stage strap-on boosters then separate symmetrically while the second stage keeps running; at two and a half minutes the rocket is at about 36 miles of altitude and 75 miles of horizontal distance from Baikonur, and shortly after the payload fairing jettisons.

Throughout the narrated ascent, engineers report that the vehicle's and engines' parameters are normal. The final stretch of the recording contains only the Russian communications from mission control.