With War Raging in Ukraine, NASA Astronaut Flies to ISS Aboard Russian Rocket

A brand new crew has efficiently reached the International Space Station following the profitable launch and docking of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The Expedition 68 crew will spend the subsequent six months in low Earth orbit working science experiments and sustaining the orbital outpost, regardless of political tensions on the bottom.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, together with Roscosmos astronauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, flew aboard a Soyuz MS-22 crew ship on Wednesday. The Soyuz rocket lifted off at 9:54 a.m. ET from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan in opposition to a picturesque sundown backdrop.

About three hours and 12 minutes into its flight, the capsule carried out a flawless docking on the Rassvet module on the Russian facet of the house station, arriving on the ISS at 1:06 p.m. ET (a couple of minutes forward of schedule). The hatches between the Soyuz spacecraft and the house station opened round two hours later, with the present crew welcoming the newcomers to their new digs.

The crew’s journey to the ISS marks Prokopyev’s second flight to house and the primary flight for Rubio and Petelin. The trio will spend round six months on the orbiting advanced, returning to Earth in March 2023.

The arrival of the Expedition 68 crew members marks the finish of Expedition 67; one week from now, members of the pre-existing crew will depart the station. Station commander Oleg Artemyev, together with flight engineers Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov, will board the Soyuz crew ship to reenter Earth’s environment and contact down in Kazakhstan after spending six months in low Earth orbit. European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will take over as station commander following Artemyev’s departure, changing into the first European lady to command the ISS. A ceremony will happen on September 28 to mark the handover of the place.

Rubio is the primary NASA astronaut to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket since April 2021, a results of a latest seat-swap settlement. The association stipulated {that a} U.S. astronaut will trip aboard a Soyuz capsule whereas a Russian cosmonaut will get to strap right into a Crew Dragon for the very first time.

Today’s launch comes at a clumsy time, because the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and as President Vladimir Putin drafts up to 300,000 reservists. The warfare, it could appear, just isn’t going to end anytime quickly. Despite the unprovoked invasion and the ensuing sanctions, the United States continues to co-operate with Russia on ISS-related issues. Given that the state of affairs on the bottom is about to worsen, it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how this relationship evolves over the approaching months.

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