Russian Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with manned MS-17 Soyuz spacecraft was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. For the first time, the rapprochement with the ISS will take about three hours and seven minutes. The rocket was launched from the 31st site of the cosmodrome ("Vostok" launch complex) at 08:45 am Moscow time. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, as well as NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins, went to the International Space Station (ISS).
The crew will stay in orbit for 177 days. During this time Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will conduct 55 scientific studies and experiments, four of which are new. They will also continue searching for the place of air leakage in the transitional section of the "Zvezda" module. The astronauts will make two trips to outer space. One of them is planned for November 2020, the second in February 2021. Both to prepare the docking and flooding of the "Pirs" module next year. This is necessary to make room for a new "Nauka" module, which will be launched in April 2021.
Now on the ISS, there are astronauts of Roscosmos Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Wagner, as well as NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.
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Photo: Space Center "Yuzhny" / Roskosmos
Based on materials from TASS