MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/. A Russian Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Soyuz MS-16 manned spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur spaceport towards the International Space Station, according to a live broadcast on the website of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos.

The first manned space launch this year is taking place amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The carrier rocket lifted off from Site No. 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome (the Vostok launch facility) at 11:05 a.m. Moscow time. The carrier rocket is delivering Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy to the International Space Station.

In about nine minutes after the launch, the Soyuz MS-16 manned spacecraft separated from the carrier rocket’s third stage and embarked on its autonomous flight to the orbital outpost. The Soyuz MS-16 will be travelling to the space station under a six-hour scheme, i.e. it will make four orbits around Earth.

The manned spacecraft is set to dock with the International Space Station at 5:15 p.m. Moscow time on April 9. US astronaut Cassidy will be the new expedition’s commander. This will be the third flight in his career. Ivanishin is also travelling to the space orbiter for the third time while Vagner has no experience of space flights.

The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket blasted off from the Vostok launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome. Before that, cosmonauts set off for their space expeditions from Launch Site No. 1 (the Gagarin Start launch facility). However, this facility is designated for Soyuz-FG carrier rockets. It needs large-scale upgrade to get adapted for the launches of new Russian Soyuz-2.1a carrier rockets.

It was earlier planned that Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin and also US astronaut Chris Cassidy would travel to the International Space Station as the crew of the new ISS expedition in April.

However, Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Flights Sergei Krikalyov announced in February that the Russian members of the Soyuz MS-16 crew would be replaced by back-up cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner for medical indications. The inter-agency commission later approved this change.

The new crew will stay for 196 days aboard the International Space Station. Overall, the new expedition members are set to carry out over 50 scientific researches and experiments. Three researches out of their total number will be conducted in the automatic mode without the crew’s participation. The cosmonauts and astronauts will also be handling space freighters during their stay aboard the orbital outpost.

Manned flight atop a new carrier rocket

The Soyuz MS-16 is the first manned spacecraft travelling to the orbital outpost atop the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the crew. As cosmonaut Ivanishin said earlier, the carrier rocket features an improved control system for the engines of its first and second stages and, as a result, an increased accuracy of delivering the payload into orbit.

Before that, all manned launches were carried by Soyuz-FG rockets with the Ukrainian control system. Now all the Soyuz manned spaceships will be launched atop Soyuz-2.1a rockets with the fully Russian control system.

Ivanishin also said that the improved Soyuz MS spacecraft version that blasted off towards the International Space Station on Thursday would use to a larger extent the satellite navigation system for its rendezvous with the space station.