Moscow announces successful launch of space mission carrying Russian cosmonauts, US astronaut

MOSCOW

Russian space corporation (Roscosmos) announced on Thursday a successful launch of the manned Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Roscosmos said in a statement that the spacecraft, carrying the crew of Expedition 74 to the International Space Station (ISS), successfully separated from the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket.

The crew comprises Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkovand Sergey Mikaev, as well as NASA astronaut Christopher Williams.

The flight to the ISS will follow an ultra-short two-orbit "rendezvous" scheme, with docking expected at the Rassvet module of the Russian segment of the station around 15.38 Moscow time (GMT1238).

The crew is scheduled to spend 242 days in the orbit and return in late July 2026. The eight-month mission includes over 40 scientific experiments, as well as two extravehicular activities.

The first spacewalk of the Russian crew will be organized to install the Solntse-Tera-Gertz equipment for predicting solar flares, Roscosmos said.

During the second spacewalk, the crew will service the Zarya module and replace components that have reached the end of their useful service.