The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft delivered to the International Space Station the participants of the 70th and 71st long-duration expeditions to the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara .
The launch took place on September 15 at 18:44:35.417 Moscow time from site 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome. The flight followed an ultra-short route: just over three hours. Already at 21:53:32 Moscow time, the ship docked at the station.
Everything was done automatically. After checking the tightness of the docking between the spacecraft and the ISS, the transition hatch was opened, after which Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolay Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara boarded the ISS. Joining the crew of the 69th long-term expedition were: Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Konstantin Borisov, NASA astronauts Francisco Rubio and Jasmine Moghbeli, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
As Roscosmos reported, since 1967 this was the 192nd docking by Soyuz family spacecraft, including the 90th to the ISS.
The ship delivered to the ISS about 120 kg of cargo, including photography and video equipment, removable storage media, on-board documentation, consumables, astronauts’ personal belongings, food rations, fresh food and equipment for conducting scientific experiments .
During the 70th and 71st long-term expeditions to the ISS, with a total planned duration of 375 days, four spacewalks are planned within the framework of the Russian program, the arrival of four Progress MS cargo ships and scientific research and applied.
Oleg Kononenko and Nikolay Chub are expected to return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft in September 2024, and Loral O’Hara on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft in March 2024.
In July 2022, as part of the ISS program, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on cross-flights of Russian cosmonauts on the American Crew Dragon spacecraft and American astronauts on the Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft.
The application of the agreement allows, in the event of cancellation or significant delay in the launch of a Russian or American spacecraft, to ensure the presence on board the ISS of at least one Roscosmos cosmonaut and one NASA astronaut in service, respectively. , the Russian and American segments of the station.
