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Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crewmembers docks to orbital outpost

It reached the International Space Station under a two-orbit scheme

Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP

Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft

© Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP

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Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket delivers manned spacecraft into orbit

BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, April 9. /TASS/. A Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft named after Yuri Gagarin reached the International Space Station (ISS) under a two-orbit scheme and docked to the station’s Rassvet module, according to a live broadcast on the website of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The Soyuz spacecraft has delivered Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei to the orbital outpost. The ISS crew will now check the air tightness of the docking unit, following which the air pressure will be leveled off between the spacecraft and the ISS. After that, the new expedition’s members will be able to transfer to the space station.

A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:42 Moscow time on April 9.

The Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft was named after Yuri Gagarin to mark the 60th anniversary of the first human flight into outer space that will be celebrated throughout the world on April 12.

During their work aboard the orbital outpost, the Russian cosmonauts will undock the Pirs module to vacate the place for Russia’s latest Nauka research laboratory that will arrive at the ISS. They will make several spacewalks to prepare the Nauka module’s docking and its integration with the space station.

Overall, Roscosmos cosmonauts Novitsky and Dubrov will carry out over 50 scientific researches and experiments during the 65th long-term expedition to the orbital outpost. Two of these experiments are expected to be conducted in the automatic mode. In particular, the Russian cosmonauts will carry out 19 studies in space medicine and biology, five in space materials processing and two in cosmic ray physics while twenty researches will be related to space exploration technologies.

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