While on Planet Earth the US and Russia are at each other’s throats, disputing a military supremacy in a world divided like never before, and frankly at the very verge of a Third World War. In space, things are different.
One American and two Russian space crew members have just took off aboard a Russian spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on a mission that saw them dock in the International Space Station three hours later.
One Astronaut and two cosmonauts, a symbol of the fundamental unity of our human race, in case anyone has forgotten that.
The Soyuz rocket is expected to follow an ultra-short flight route, making only two loops around the Earth, which will take about three hours, before reaching the International Space Station.
Soyuz MS-24 Rocket Launches From Baikonur Cosmodrome Bound For ISS pic.twitter.com/EWa0SJGqXd
— RT (@RT_com) September 15, 2023
Reuters reported:
“A Russian spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome on Friday carrying two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut to join the crew of the International Space Station, live TV images showed.
The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft with American Loral O’Hara and Russians Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on board was due to dock to the ISS at 1856 GMT.”
For O’Hara and Chub, this is the first spaceflight, but experienced Kononenko is on his fifth.
“The ISS is one of the few international projects on which the United States and Russia still cooperate closely. Relations in other areas have virtually broken down since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to which Washington responded by arming Kyiv and imposing successive rounds of sanctions on Moscow.”
Associated Press reported:
“When they get to the ISS, their module will dock and when the hatches open they will be met by seven astronauts and cosmonauts from the U.S., Russia, Denmark and Japan. Later in September, three of the ISS crew will depart, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who will have been there for more than a year.
According to NASA, when mission commander Kononenko finishes his tour to space in a year’s time, he will hold the record for the person who has spent the longest amount of time — more than a thousand days — in space.”
Three hours and nine minutes after the launch, the Soyuz capsule approached the ISS and made its approach in orbit over Morrocan city of Casablanca, and the three crew members arrived in their ‘new home in space’ after a flawless docking.
Watch as the Soyuz spacecraft carrying astronaut @LunarLoral and two cosmonauts arrives at the @Space_Station. https://t.co/JYrGlolTh1
— NASA (@NASA) September 15, 2023
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