NASA's Anil Menon, Russian Astronauts Blast Off for 8-Month Stint on ISS

A US-Russian space crew blasted off successfully Tuesday on a mission to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian crewmates Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina lifted off from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 for an eight-month stint on the orbiting outpost. They are set to dock at the station three hours after the launch.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended the launch, the first visit to Baikonur by a NASA chief in eight years that highlighted the ongoing cooperation in orbit between Moscow and Washington despite tensions over Russia’s military action in Ukraine.

Speaking during Monday’s meeting with the crew, Isaacman thanked Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, for its efforts to prepare for the mission, saying that “the integrated work performed over the past several months reflects the professionalism and dedication of everyone involved.”

Isaacman also met with Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov before Tuesday's launch.

The mission is Menon’s first space flight and the second for Dubrov and Kikina.

The trio will join NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev and Andrei Fedyaev.

Once bitter rivals in the space race during the Cold War, Russia and the US cooperate on the space station and other projects. That relationship was marred by tensions after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, but Washington and Moscow have continued to work together, with US and Russian crews flying to the orbiting outpost on each country’s spacecraft.

Plans for broader cooperation, including possible Russian involvement in NASA’s Artemis program of lunar research, have fallen apart. As Russia has become increasingly reliant on China for its energy exports and imports of key technology amid Western sanctions, Roscosmos has started cooperation with China on its prospective lunar mission.