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Russian Soyuz MS-24 crew good to go for September 15 spaceflight

Oleg Kononenko may become the first human to spend more than 1,000 days in a space station as part of a year-long expedition

BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, September 14. /TASS/. A state commission greenlighted the crew of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft for launch from Russia’s Baikonur Spaceport in Kazakhstan slated for Friday, Roscosmos told reporters.

According to the state-run space corporation, the basic crew comprises deputy chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Oleg Kononenko, who will be the fourth special reporter for TASS to be put into orbit, cosmonaut Nikolay Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. Their backups are Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and astronaut Tracy Dyson.

The Soyuz MS-24 manned transport spacecraft is scheduled to be launched at 6:44:35 p.m. on September 15. Kononenko may become the first human to spend more than 1,000 days in a space station as part of a year-long expedition.

O’Hara will return to Earth on Soyuz MS-24 in the spring of 2024, while Kononenko and Chub’s mission will last until September 2024, after which the cosmonauts will return to Earth on Soyuz MS-25.

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