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Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft with Belarusian cosmonaut on board blasts off to ISS

It is expected to dock with the Prichal nodal module of the ISS at 6:10 p.m. Moscow time on March 25

BAIKONUR SPACEPORT /Kazakhstan/, March 23. /TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-25 spaceship has blasted off from Site 31 of the Baikonur spaceport, a TASS correspondent reported.

In about nine minutes, the spaceship will be delivered into orbit. It is expected to dock with the Prichal nodal module of the International Space Station (ISS) at 6:10 p.m. Moscow time (3:10 p.m. GMT) on March 25.

The three member crew includes Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson.

Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will spend 12 days at the orbital outpost. They are expected to return to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft together with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6. Dyson’s space mission will last until September; she will return to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko (TASS special correspondent at the ISS) and Nikolay Chub.

The launch was initially scheduled for Thursday but was automatically aborted seconds before liftoff because of a problem with a chemical power source.

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