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Russian Soyuz Rocket Set to Launch Three to International Space Station
A Russian Soyuz rocket is poised to launch three individuals, one of whom is a NASA astronaut, to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday morning. The launch of the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft will take place at 9:21 a.m. EDT from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
You can witness the event live here at Space.com, thanks to NASA, or directly via the space agency. Coverage will commence at 8:20 a.m. EDT.
Space Travelers on Board
Set to journey on Soyuz MS-25 are NASA’s Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya from Belarus.
If all proceeds as planned, the trio will dock with the ISS just over three hours after liftoff, at 12:39 p.m. EDT on Thursday. The orbital rendezvous can be viewed here at Space.com, beginning at 11:30 a.m. EDT.
Coverage will continue at 2:50 p.m. EDT, showcasing the opening of hatches between the Soyuz and the ISS along with welcoming remarks from the current occupants of the space station.
Noteworthy Details
Thursday’s launch marks Dyson’s third spaceflight, Novitskiy’s fourth, and Vasilevskaya’s debut into space. The latter two will spend 12 days in orbit before returning to Earth on April 2 aboard a separate Soyuz, accompanied by NASA astronaut Laurel O’Hara.
Dyson is slated for a six-month stay aboard the ISS, set to return in September alongside Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub of Roscosmos, who are currently engaged in a yearlong mission on the station.
The Soyuz mission stands as the first of two planned launches to the ISS on Thursday. SpaceX is scheduled to launch a robotic cargo mission to the station at 4:55 p.m. EDT.
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