A Soyuz rocket lifts off to the ISS

A Soyuz rocket took off on Wednesday for the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with an American and two Russians on board, in full stress linked to the offensive in Ukraine.

“The steadiness is nice (…), the crew feels good,” mentioned a NASA commentator after takeoff, broadcast reside collectively on the websites of the American and Russian area businesses.

The Russian rocket lifted off on schedule at 1:54 p.m. GMT (3:54 p.m. in Switzerland) from the steppes of Kazakhstan, hovering in a path of fireplace into darkened skies, the photographs present.

This mission by the American Frank Rubio of NASA and the Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Peteline of the Russian area company Roscosmos represents a uncommon instance of cooperation between Moscow and Washington, whereas their relations are at their lowest.

Mr. Rubio is the primary American astronaut to journey to the ISS aboard a Russian rocket for the reason that begin of the Russian army intervention in Ukraine launched on February 24.

The crew is to spend six months aboard the ISS, the place they may reunite with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveïev and Sergei Korsakov, American astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins, and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

That is Frank Rubio and Dmitri Peteline’s first flight, and Sergei Prokopiev’s second.

Docking with the Russian section of the ISS is scheduled after a three-hour Soyuz journey.

/ATS