Canadian NASA astronaut heading to the International Space Station
MONTREAL — A NASA astronaut with ties to Canada has blasted off to the International Space Station where he will stay nearly six months.
Andrew “Drew” Feustel, who has dual Canada-U.S. citizenship, headed off Wednesday afternoon with fellow NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev.
The trio are aboard a Soyuz rocket that left as scheduled from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan — eight months before Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques leaves for the orbiting space laboratory in November for a six-month stay.
The spacecraft is set to dock at the orbiting outpost Friday.