Moscow, (EFE).- Russia launched the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft with three crew members on board towards the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The launch, broadcast live on television, was carried out at 15:44 GMT with the help of a Soyuz-2.1 carrier rocket.
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and American astronaut Loral O’Hara are traveling on the ship.
Nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz entered the planned orbit bound for the orbital platform.
The Soyuz MS-24 flight plan contemplates only two orbits around the Earth before its docking, scheduled for 18:56 GMT, with the Rassvet module of the Russian segment of the orbital platform.
For O’Hara and Chub this is their first space flight, while for Kononenko, it is the fifth.
The experienced Russian cosmonaut has spent a total of 736 days and 18 hours in space.
Six months and a year in space
The American astronaut’s mission will last six months, while that of her two flight companions will last a year, so Kononenko will spend more than 1,000 days in space.
The Russian cosmonaut program on the ISS includes four spacewalks, the reception of four Progress freighters and numerous scientific experiments.
Collaboration with NASA
A NASA delegation is located in Baikonur, headed by Joel Montalbano, head of the US program on the ISS, where international cooperation has not been affected by the war in Ukraine.
In fact, O’Hara’s flight on the Soyuz has been possible thanks to the agreement signed in July of last year between the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and NASA for the exchange of seats on Russian and American transport ships.
This exchange of seats ensures that in the event of cancellation or significant delay of a Russian or American flight to the ISS, there will be at least one Roscosmos cosmonaut and one NASA astronaut to maintain their respective segments of the orbital platform.
The crew of the Soyuz-MS-24 will be received at the ISS by its current tenants: the Americans Jasmin Moghbeli and Frank Rubio, the Russians Dmitri Petelin, Konstatín Borísov and Sergei Prokopiev, the Dane Andreas Mogense, and the Japanese Satoshi Furukawa.EFE
