Howard County Astronaut Has Launched Into Space
BALTIMORE (WJZ) --- The latest Maryland astronaut is safely on the International Space Station tonight. As Mary Bubala reports, Air Force Colonel Terry Virts launched into space Sunday afternoon.
Terry Virts and two others lifted off from Kazakstan on Sunday on board the Russian Soyuz Capsule. Virts, of Howard County, was joined by a veteran cosmonaut and an Italian fighter pilot making her first space flight.
The capsule traveled 1,100 mph and six hours later it docked with the ISS. It was a thrill for the 1985 graduate of Oakland Mills High School in Columbia.
Virts' daughter, son and wife were able to connect with him. One of the first things they ask him is whether he's had a chance to look out the window.
"We did, about six minutes I looked out and saw the most amazing sunrise and then about an hour later we saw our first sunset," Virts tells his family. "Everything is awesome, it's just amazing here."
Virts landed on the ISS just days after Maryland's other astronaut, Reid Wiseman, returned from a six-month-long journey there. Like Wiseman, Virts will be conducting experiments and research while on board.
Virts will carry out three spacewalks in late January and early February to ready the ISS for commercial crew ships now being built by Boeing and Space X.
Like Wiseman, Virts says he will use his Twitter @AstroTerry to show his view to people on Earth.
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