The subsequent crew launch to the Worldwide House Station is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at 14:47 UTC from Web site 31/6 on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft, carrying a crew of three, will launch atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket and observe a northeastern trajectory right into a low-Earth orbit.
Soyuz MS-29 is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 17:56 UTC after spending simply three hours in orbit, in contrast with different profiles that require six and even 48 hours to achieve the Station. This potential to rendezvous and dock with the ISS in three hours will not be obtainable for each launch alternative.
The mission is commanded by Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos, together with his company colleague Anna Kikina and NASA’s Anil Menon as crewmates. Dubrov and Kikina are making their second journey to ISS whereas Menon, the husband of Polaris Daybreak crewmember and astronaut candidate Anna Menon, is making his first flight into house.
Soyuz MS-29 crew L to R: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, mission commander Pyotr Dubrov, and flight engineer Anna Kikina. (Credit score: GCTC)
About two hours after Soyuz MS-29 docks with the Russian section’s Prichal module, the spacecraft’s hatch will likely be opened. The crew will take part in a handover interval over the following 12 days with the Soyuz MS-28 crew earlier than that spacecraft leaves the Station.
Soyuz MS-28 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Roscosmos flight engineer Sergey Mikayev, and NASA’s Chris Williams will undock from the Rassvet module on July 26. Previous to undocking, outgoing ISS commander Kud-Sverchkov will “cross the torch” to Jessica Meir, who will function Station commander till simply earlier than Crew-12 departs the Station.
After Soyuz MS-28 undocks, Expedition 74 will formally finish, and Expedition 75 will start. The spacecraft will return to Earth inside just a few hours of undocking, with a touchdown within the Kazakh steppe after eight months in orbit.
The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft throughout pre-flight processing. (Credit score: RKK Energia)
Soyuz MS-29’s prime crew of Dubrov, Kikina, and Menon initially skilled because the backup crew for Soyuz MS-28. Sometimes, a given Soyuz ISS flight’s backup crew turns into the prime crew for the following flight, although there have been exceptions. MS-29’s backup crew consists of Dmitry Petelin and Konstantin Borisov from Roscosmos, in addition to NASA astronaut Deniz Burnham, and they’re anticipated to grow to be the Soyuz MS-30 prime crew.
NASA and Roscosmos have flown a minimum of one among their astronauts or cosmonauts aboard the opposite company’s crewed spacecraft to make sure redundant entry to the Station if a problem had been to floor both spacecraft for a interval. The barter settlement between NASA and Roscosmos has been prolonged to a minimum of 2027, and every Soyuz mission now lasts eight months as a substitute of six attributable to Roscosmos’s funds constraints.
Soyuz MS-29 commander Pyotr Dubrov, born on Jan. 30, 1978, within the Soviet — now Russian — Far East metropolis of Khabarovsk, earned a level in Software program for Pc Engineering and Automated Techniques from Khabarovsk State Technical College earlier than changing into a Roscosmos cosmonaut in 2012.
Soyuz MS-18, launched on April 9, 2021, was Dubrov’s first spaceflight. He served as a flight engineer on the mission, commanded by Oleg Novitsky. Novitsky, Dubrov, and NASA’s Mark Vande Hei docked with ISS and have become a part of the Expedition 64 and 65 crews, and Dubrov carried out 4 spacewalks from the Russian section throughout his time in orbit.
Dubrov and Vande Hei additionally turned a part of the Expedition 66 crew, returning to Earth after spending over 355 days in house aboard Soyuz MS-19 on March 30, 2022. Novitsky returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-18, together with film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild, who had launched to the Station on Soyuz MS-19 with commander Anton Shkaplerov.
Soyuz MS-29 flight engineer Anna Kikina was born on Aug. 27, 1984, in Novosibirsk, which was then within the Soviet Union and is now the executive heart of Russia’s Siberian Federal District. Kikina, at present the one feminine member of Roscosmos’ astronaut corps, is an engineer and a graduate of Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transportation Engineering.
Like Pyotr Dubrov, Kikina turned a Roscosmos astronaut in 2012. Kikina flew to the ISS as a Roscosmos crew member aboard the SpaceX Crew-5 mission. Soyuz MS-29 will likely be Kikina’s first flight on a Soyuz spacecraft.
Dr. Anil Menon, then a USAF Main, working at Mission Management in Houston in 2014. (Credit score: Maj. Anil Menon/USAF/173rd FW Oregon ANG)
Crew-5, commanded by NASA’s Nicole Mann, launched to the Station on Oct. 5, 2022 aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance. Mann, Kikina, NASA’s Josh Cassada, and Japan’s Koichi Wakata turned members of the Expedition 68 crew, and spent over 157 days in orbit earlier than splashing down on March 12, 2023, off the coast of Clearwater, Florida.
Kikina, the primary Russian house company crew member to launch aboard a rocket from the USA since Nikolai Budarin’s flight aboard the House Shuttle Endeavour on STS-113 in 2002, and Dubrov are additionally recipients of the Hero of the Russian Federation title.
Anil Menon, born on Oct. 15, 1976, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, holds a bachelor’s diploma in neurobiology from Harvard and is a United States Air Power lieutenant colonel. He additionally pursued an aerospace medication residency on the College of Texas Medical Department and printed his thesis on medical kits for business spaceflight.
Throughout his Air Power profession, Menon flew greater than 100 sorties within the F-15 as a flight surgeon for the 173rd Fighter Wing. He additionally supported the forty fifth House Wing and acted as a primary responder after the 2010 Haiti and 2015 Nepal earthquakes in addition to the 2011 air race crash in Reno, Nevada. Menon turned a flight crew surgeon for NASA earlier than becoming a member of SpaceX as its first flight surgeon in 2018.
NASA Astronaut Group 23, often called “The Flies,” in a joint portrait. (Credit score: NASA)
Menon supported a number of Crew Dragon missions earlier than being chosen as a NASA astronaut candidate in December 2021 as a part of Astronaut Group 23, nicknamed “The Flies.” He’ll grow to be the fourth member of this group to fly, following Nichole Ayers, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams.
Anil and Anna Menon, dad and mom of two youngsters, may have each flown in house after Soyuz MS-29 launches. Anil, a practising doctor, will conduct varied experiments throughout his eight-month keep aboard ISS. These embody experiments finding out blood movement in house, bioprinting vascular constructs in microgravity, and ultrasound utilizing augmented actuality, amongst others.
Soyuz MS-29 would be the first and solely scheduled crewed launch from Baikonur this 12 months, with Soyuz MS-30 and MS-31 anticipated to fly in 2027. This flight will even be the fifth crewed spaceflight and fourth orbital crewed flight of 2026.
(Lead picture: The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft and rocket on the launch pad earlier than flight. Credit score: NASA/Invoice Ingalls)
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