It is in a tense context between Russia and the United States, against a backdrop of war in Ukraine, that the Soyuz rocket will take off this Wednesday, September 21 in the direction of Station spatiale internationale (ISS). On board, two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin will take off aboard a Soyuz MS-22 from Kazakhstan at 3:54 p.m. (French time). The trip is expected to take three hours before Soyuz docks with the ISS. They will remain on board the station for six months.
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Astronaut Frank Rubio is set to launch on his first mission to the @Space_Station aboard a Soyuz rocket on Wed, Sept. 21 with crew members Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin. Live coverage begins at 9am ET (13:00 UTC), liftoff at 9:54am ET (13:54 UTC): https://t.co/PHGCtPqoFF pic.twitter.com/uh6lxdW8JN
— NASA (@NASA) September 17, 2022
Conduct of the mission
Their colleagues already on board the ISS, including three Russians and three Americans, will be there to welcome them. This is the second flight for Sergey Prokopyev and the first for Frank Rubio and Dmitri Petelin.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts have already rubbed shoulders in space. To believe that the conflict had no impact in space.
On son site, NASA says that a week after the astronauts arrive, the three cosmonauts who have been living in space since March 18 will board their Soyuz MS-21 team ship and return to Earth. The trio spent their day Tuesday packing up cargo and personal gear for storage inside Soyuz and conditioning their bodies for return to Earth’s gravity.
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A Soyuz rocket will launch three new crewmates to the station at 9:54am ET on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Exp 67 crew studies biology, botany, physics, and robotics. https://t.co/EZ3nCpSnOP
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 20, 2022
ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will take over as station commander from Artemyev ahead of her departure at the traditional change of command ceremony next week. The leadership change will be seen live on NASA TV, the agency’s app, and its website on September 28.
Search operations
Search operations aboard the station are still ongoing. Astronauts conduct the experiments themselves, supported by scientists who also conduct studies remotely, from ground control centers.
Tuesday’s space science program saw astronauts busy all day exploring biology, botany, physics and robotics.
Another flight to the ISS is scheduled for October 3, as part of a joint mission between NASA and Roscosmos, this time aboard a Space X Crew Dragon capsule. A Russian cosmonaut, two American astronauts and a Japanese will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.