KOROLYOV /Moscow Region/, March 25. /TASS/. The Soyuz MS-25 crewed spacecraft launched from the Baikonur space center on March 23 docked to the Prichal module on the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), a TASS correspondent reported from Russia’s Flight Control Center on Monday.
The spacecraft delivered the international crew comprising Belarusian female cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson.
Cosmonauts Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will spend 12 days on the ISS and return to Earth together with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara aboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on April 6. Dyson will stay aboard the orbital outpost until September, following which she will come back to Earth together with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (a TASS special reporter in space) and Nikolay Chub.
Roscosmos initially planned to launch the spacecraft on March 21 under an ultra-short two-orbit scheme expected to last three hours and a half. However, 20 seconds before the liftoff, the launch was automatically cancelled and the crew was evacuated safely. The launch was rescheduled for March 21 and the flight scheme was changed for a two-day ride.