KOROLEV /Moscow Region/, September 26. /TASS/. The crew of Russia’s Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft, comprising Russia’s cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA’s Jessica Meir, as well as the United Arab Emirates’ first astronaut Hazza al-Mansouri, entered the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.
The docking of Soyuz MS-15 and the ISS was carried out in an automated mode and was successfully concluded at 22:45 Moscow time on Wednesday. The spacecraft approached the station after a six-hour journey.
On board, the new crew was greeted by Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Alexander Skvortsov, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano (Italy).
The planned duration of the new expedition’s flight is 187 days. Hazza al-Mansouri will return to the Earth on October 3, together with Ovchinin and Hague.
During their stay at the ISS, the crew members would perform a series of experiments, including medical, biological, chemical and others - more than 50 in total.