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Next Wednesday, September 25th, the Soyuz MS-15 will be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome. I guess the trip to the ISS will be long (6 hrs to 24 hr) as usual.

I want to see both the ISS and the Soyuz approaching it with my binoculars. The idea is to see them chasing each other and take some pictures. But for that I need to know the TLE of the Soyuz.

  • Are there any predicted TLEs available right now? Is there any place where I could get accurate TLEs for the Soyuz almost in real-time? after launch so I plan my observation?

  • Are there any available documents with schedules I can look for? Maybe some instructions and times for each phase of the approach? In that way I could try to see the ISS ~1 hour before the docking and see if I can spot the Soyuz as a separate object.

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About 6 hours after launch, the Soyuz spacecraft can be observed near the ISS. About three minutes later, Soyuz will fly after the ISS and will be visible in the same orbit. Therefore use https://www.n2yo.com/

P.S.

The duration of the trip to the ISS varies. Until 2012, astronauts always spent about two days in the Soyuz spacecraft before docking to the ISS.

Since then, some rendezvous have taken place only six hours after lift-off, after the Soyuz has circled Earth four times! During that time, the astronauts begin to acclimatize to microgravity while they monitor the spacecraft's systems. En route to the International Space Station

P.P.S. Infographics on the official page of Roscosmos on Facebook. The path of the Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS will take 6 hours. Docking will happen on September 25 at 19:45 UTC. enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ I don't know that this mission will be using it, but they're working on a two-orbit rendezvous option, so launch to prox ops in three hours $\endgroup$
    – Tristan
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 13:42
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    $\begingroup$ @ two-orbit for Progress. $\endgroup$
    – A. Rumlin
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 16:55

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