American astronomer-turned-medical physicist and now NASA astronaut Chris Williams joined two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz ferry ship Thursday for a Thanksgiving Day flight to the Worldwide Area Station.
With commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov on the controls of the Soyuz MS-28/74S spacecraft, flanked on his left by flight engineer Sergey Mikaev and on the precise by Williams, the crew’s Soyuz 2.1a booster roared to life at 4:27 a.m. Jap and easily climbed away from the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
9 minutes and 45 seconds later, the Soyuz spacecraft was launched from the booster’s higher stage, its two photo voltaic wings unfolded and the crew set off in pursuit of the house station. If all goes properly, the automated two-orbit rendezvous will finish with a docking on the lab’s Earth-facing Rassvet module at 7:38 a.m. Jap.
Roscosmos/NASA
Williams, a former volunteer fireplace fighter and emergency medical technician who went on to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics from MIT, was a board-certified medical physicist at Harvard Medical College when he was chosen to affix NASA’s astronaut corps in 2021.
He and flight engineer Mikaev had been making their first house flight on Thursday, whereas Kud-Sverchkov is a seasoned veteran who logged 185 days aboard the house station in 2020-2021.
Roscosmos/NASA 
“It is a actually nice crew,” Williams stated in a NASA interview. “Sergey and Sergey are each simply completely fantastic individuals, actually variety, tremendous , tremendous intellectually curious, which is actually enjoyable. Had numerous actually, actually nice discussions, simply speaking and speaking about issues.
“It has been been fantastic to each spend a while with them over in Star Metropolis, and in addition to have the ability to spend a while with them in Houston by means of our coaching.”
NASA 
The Soyuz MS-28 crew is changing Soyuz MS-27/73S commander Sergey Ryzhikov, flight engineer Alexey Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who had been launched to the house station final April. They plan to return to Earth on Dec. 9 to wrap up their eight-month keep on the ISS.
Additionally readily available to welcome Williams and his crewmates aboard the station: NASA Crew 11 commander Zena Cardman, Michael Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov. They launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket final August and plan to return house in February or March, after their replacements — Crew 12 — arrive.
All 11 station fliers deliberate to assemble for a standard welcome aboard video name to mission managers and household again in Moscow earlier than a security briefing and the beginning of familiarization with the house station’s advanced programs.
Williams, an Eagle Scout with a personal pilot’s license, is a standout amongst tremendous achievers.
After graduating from Stanford College with a bachelor’s diploma in physics, he was doing radio astronomy analysis on the best way to a Ph.D. and, “down the road from my home, there was a volunteer fireplace division. And I used to be like, oh, that seems like one thing that may very well be sort of like enjoyable and attention-grabbing to do.”
“So I began volunteering. Obtained skilled as an EMT and a firefighter, and began simply type of doing that on a volunteer foundation. And I discovered that I actually favored it. I bought numerous satisfaction out of understanding that … on the finish of the shift, I might have actually made a really direct and fast optimistic influence on someone’s life.”
He saved that up all through graduate college. Then, as he was winding up his doctorate in astrophysics, Williams stated he bumped into a health care provider he knew at a celebration who advised him there was “a giant want for physicists in medication, specifically, in radiation oncology, the place we use radiation to deal with most cancers.”
NASA 
He talked with a number of different individuals, together with one who had been an astronomer earlier than switching to medical physics, and “I used to be struck by how a lot of what I knew and had discovered as an astronomer would truly be helpful and apply very on to medication.”
“Quite a lot of the maths behind (medical) imaging is the very same math that really you utilize in a radio telescope to make a picture,” Williams stated. “It was sort of neat to see that picture processing strategies that I would used as (a radio astronomer) truly carried over fairly immediately into medication.”
On the time of his choice as an astronaut, Williams was on the employees at Harvard Medical College as a scientific physicist and researcher. He’s the second member of the 2021 class of astronauts to fly in house, getting assigned to the Soyuz MS-28 mission shortly after ending astronaut candidate coaching.
He stated the coaching for launch on a Russian spacecraft was tough, primarily due to the journey required. He credited his spouse, Aubrey, with maintaining the household’s life on a fair keel all through.
As for what he appears ahead to throughout his eight-month keep in house, Williams repeated a well-known theme.
“I’ve bought numerous completely different targets, however I feel the most important one, and the factor I am most enthusiastic about, is to really be capable to put my coaching into follow and to do a extremely good job to push ahead the science and analysis that we’re doing on on the house station.”
“I feel it is extremely essential. I feel it is extremely attention-grabbing and extremely inspiring, and I really feel actually fortunate to have the chance to contribute to that.”
