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Updated September 21st, 2022 at 23:13 IST

Russia launches NASA astronaut with two cosmonauts for six-month-long ISS mission

Russia launched NASA astronaut Frank Rubio with cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin to ISS in a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan at 7:24 pm IST. 

Reported by: Harsh Vardhan
Russia
Image: NASA | Image:self
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Russia's Space Agency, Roscosmos launched NASA astronaut Frank Rubio with cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin on a six-month-long mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The trio launched to Space in a Soyuz MS-22 capsule mounted atop the Soyuz 2.1a carrier rocket which lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:24 pm IST. 

[Frank Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin (left to right); Image: NASA]

The MS-22 spacecraft will reach the space station after a three-hour-long journey and the astronauts will enter the orbiting laboratory two hours after the docking. Rubio was launched in a Russian spacecraft under the cross-flight agreement signed between Roscosmos and NASA. On October 3, NASA will launch Russia's female cosmonaut Anna Kikina as part of the Crew-5 mission which includes two American astronauts-- Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada-- and a Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. 

Notably, Rubio and company are part of the Expedition 68 team that will replace Expedition 67 comprising seven astronauts. After the arrival of three members from Russia, four other members will launch from the Kennedy Space Center on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

According to NASA, those launched from Russia will replace Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov who are in space since March 18 whereas the Crew-5 team will replace the Crew-4 astronauts that entered the ISS in April this year. With Artemyev departing with two others a week later, the command of the space station will be handed over temporarily to European Space Agency's (ESA) Samantha Christoforetti, making her the first European woman to assume the position. Artemyev along with his crewmates is packing up cargo and personal gear before loading it in the MS-21 spacecraft that will undock from the Prichal module. 

Meanwhile, NASA is preparing to launch a new batch of astronauts under the leadership of Nicole Mann. The launch of Crew-5 is slated for October 5 at 10:15 pm IST. The mission would be historic as it would see Kikina become the first Russian cosmonaut to ride a commercial spacecraft i.e. SpaceX's Dragon capsule. Last week, Kikina arrived in the US to familiarise herself with the upgraded US spacecraft as part of her spaceflight preparations.

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Published September 21st, 2022 at 22:45 IST

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