– Three staff members set off for the International Space Station on Friday (April 9), launching just three days to mark the 60th anniversary of the first human spaceflight.
Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei boarded the Russian Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft for a three-hour two-orbit encounter with the space station. The Soyuz flew at 03:42 EDT (0742 GMT or 12:42 local time) from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Food Modroom in Kazakhstan, near where cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made history to become the first person to appear on April the space in flight. 12, 1961.
To honor the anniversary, the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft was christened the “Yu.A. Gagarin” and bore the name on the outer insulation.
“It is a great honor for us to fly and celebrate the anniversary of the first flight into space,” Novitskiy said, addressing the Russian State Commission, which approved the launch of the crew on Thursday.
“For me,” Dubrov added, “it is a special honor to have my first flight on such an important date as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the first flight into space.”
That the crew included an American underscores one of the most important advances made since Gagarin’s Vostok mission with one lane, Vande Hei said.
“Of course, when we started, we competed with each other and that was one of the reasons we were so successful at the beginning of human spaceflight,” he said. “Over time, we realized that by working together even more, we could achieve even more, and it continues today, and I hope it will continue in the future.”
At present, Vande Hei is the last American astronaut to fly on a Russian Soyuz after 26 years of joint missions. Vande Hei’s place on the Soyuz MS-18 mission came as a result of a swap deal between NASA, US space agency Axiom Space and Roscosmos.
Joint flights are expected to resume as soon as an agreement can be reached for Russian cosmonauts to fly on U.S. commercial crews, including SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, but when that will happen is not yet known.
Novitskiy, Dubrov and Vande Hei are scheduled to arrive at the space station on Friday at 07:07 EDT (1107 GMT) and connect their Soybeans to the Russian Rassvet module. (update: Soyuz MS-18 arrived at the space station at 07:05 EDT [1105 GMT]With their arrival, the laboratory’s replenishment will be briefly increased to ten crew members, including Expedition 64 Commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos and flight engineers Sergey Kud-Sverchkov also of Roscosmos, NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins are scheduled to return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-17 on April 16, with Expedition 65 aboard the station.
Hopkins, Glover, Walker and Noguchi will depart aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Resilience” on April 28, six days after SpaceX’s Crew-2 arrives on the Dragon “Endeavor”, including NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur , Thomas Pesquet. with the European Space Agency (ESA) and JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide.
Novitskiy, Dubrov and Vande Hei are expected to remain on board the space station at least October. Dubrov and Vande Hei’s stay could be extended to a year, depending on whether Russia continues with its plans to draft a Russian filmmaker and actress for a short-stay mission to make a film aboard the space station in September. filmed. If the film crew starts, they will return to Earth with Novitskiy and fill Dubrov and Vande Hei’s seats aboard Soyuz MS-18.
“For me, it’s just an opportunity for a new life experience,” Vande Hei said in March when the prospect of longer stays became known for the first time. “I’ve never been in space for more than about six months, so if someone tells me to stay in space for a year, I’ll find out how it feels. I’m really enthusiastic about it.”
Novitskiy, Dubrov and Vande Hei are expected to help more than 260 experiments in space together in their first six months, with more than 40 taking place for the first time during Expedition 65. All three are also expected to hold spacecraft for the purpose of expanding the capabilities of the space station.
Vande Hei can help with the installation of new solar power plants to increase the available power supply for extensive commercial activities on the track complex. Novitskiy and Dubrov are scheduled to prepare for the integration of a new Russian multipurpose laboratory module, “Nauka,” scheduled for July.
The launch of Soyuz MS-18 is Novitskiy’s third mission to the space station, Vande Hei’s second and Dubrov’s first.
A 49-year-old former Russian Air Force pilot, Novitskiy, previously served as a member of the crew members Expedition 33/34 and Expedition 50/51 in 2012 and 2017, respectively, and reported 340 days in space.
Dubrov, 43, worked as a software engineer when he was selected in 2012 to train as a cosmonaut.
Vande Hei (54) was previously a member of the crew of the space station Expedition 53/54 in 2017. A retired colonel in the US Army, he has already reported 168 days in space, including 26 hours and 42 minutes on four spaceships.
Soyuz MS-18 “Yu.A. Gagarin” is Russia’s 64th Soyuz spacecraft to fly to the International Space Station since 2000 and 147th since 1967.