Riding High Over Ukraine: Soyuz Spacecraft Docks to Space Station With New Crew

Soyuz MS-24 Spacecraft Approaches Space Station

The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub aboard approaches the space station for a docking. Credit: NASA TV

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station (ISS) at 2:53 p.m. EDT on September 15 while the station was traveling 260 miles over Ukraine, south of Kyiv. The spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan 3 hours earlier at 11:44 a.m. EDT (8:44 p.m. Baikonur time).

Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’ Hara launched on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 15. Following a two-orbit rendezvous, the trio docked to the Rassvet module of the International Space Station where they will conduct long-duration missions aboard the orbital outpost. Credit: NASA

The hatches between the ISS and the newly arrived Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft officially opened at 5:16 p.m. EDT. The arrival of three new crew members to the existing seven people already aboard for Expedition 69 temporarily increases the station’s population to 10.

The 10-person Expedition 69 crew is now aboard the space station. Front row from left are, Roscosmos cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov, Nikolai Chub, and Oleg Kononenko, and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. In the back are, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. Credit: NASA TV

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub joined the space station’s Expedition 69 crew of NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Frank Rubio, Roscosmos cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin, Konstantin Borisov, and Sergey Prokopyev, as well ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. O’Hara will spend six months aboard the orbital laboratory, while Kononenko and Chub will both spend one year on the orbital outpost.

The Soyuz MS-24 rocket with one NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts aboard blasts off toward the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV

On September 27, Rubio, Petelin, and Prokopyev will return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft. The trio has been aboard the orbital laboratory since arriving on September 21, 2022.