Soyuz MS-12 launch

Video from the channel SciNews about Soyuz (cohete), linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:33. Language: English. Video type: Launch.

The video shows the launch of the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft to the International Space Station with cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch. It begins with the crew riding the tower elevator to board the spacecraft.

After the launch command, the second umbilical tower separates, the engines ignite, the turbopumps reach operating speed and the rocket lifts off at maximum thrust. The commentator explains that the first stage, with four strap-on boosters and a core block, produces about 930,000 pounds of thrust. One minute into flight the vehicle exceeds 1,000 miles per hour. When it passes out of view, the footage switches to an animation. The launch escape tower jettison, the separation of the four strap-on boosters — leaving the core block as the second stage — and the payload fairing separation are confirmed, with the rocket above 3,000 miles per hour at about 48 miles altitude. Second stage separation and third stage separation follow. The flight commander repeatedly reports that everything is nominal and the crew is doing well.

The spacecraft reaches the planned orbit and Moscow Mission Control takes over communications. The crew confirms that the antennas and solar panels have deployed and that separation was nominal.