Soyuz Spacecraft Hatches Open, Expedition 70 Welcomes International Trio Aboard Station

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft approaches the station for docking. Credit: NASA TV

NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station at 11:03 a.m. EDT.

The hatches between the International Space Station and the newly arrived Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft officially opened at 1:26 p.m. EDT. The arrival of three new crew members to the existing seven people already aboard for Expedition 70 temporarily increases the station’s population to 10.

The Soyuz MS-25 crew joins the Expedition 70 crew aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV

The newly arrived trio joined NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin, already living and working aboard the space station.

Dyson will spend six months aboard the station as an Expedition 70 and 71 flight engineer, returning to Earth in September with Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub of Roscosmos, who will complete a year-long mission on the laboratory.

Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will be aboard the station for 12 days, providing the ride home for O’Hara on Saturday, April 6, aboard Soyuz MS-24 for a parachute-assisted landing on steppe of Kazakhstan. O’Hara will have spent 204 days in space when she returns.