MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. The Soyuz-MS spacecraft will be able to reach the International Space Station in 2 hours and 45 minutes, using a two-orbit rendezvous flight scheme, Head of the ballistics department of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia Rafail Murtazin told TASS.

"We have some time reserve, which we could gradually ‘choose’ and dock with the station in nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes. But all this will be thanks to this flight scheme," Murtazin said.

According to the expert, this fast-tracked scheme in October 2020 helped the crew to dock with the station in 3 hours and 3 minutes. "And 2 hours and 20 minutes after the launch the Soyuz-MS was already two kilometers from the ISS, from which the cosmonauts were able to dock quickly in a manual mode. During the docking with the ISS security requirements should be observed on an immediate rendezvous with the station within another 40 minutes," he explained.

The three-hour ISS flight scheme was possible thanks to switching to the Soyuz-2.1 a carrier rocket, which is six times more precise than the Soyuz FG due to a domestic digital control system, the expert noted.

The next Soyuz-MS flight to the ISS, scheduled for April 9, is due to take place under a two-orbit scheme. This time the flight to the station is expected to take nearly 3.5 hours.