KOROLEV /Moscow Region/, March 25. /TASS/. The Soyuz MS-25 crewed spacecraft docked to the ISS normally in the automatic mode, Sergey Krikalev, Roscosmos executive director for crewed space programs, has told the media.

"The docking went well, in the automatic mode. The crew controlled the process. The automated system docked the ship to the station exactly according to the program, so everything went smoothly," Krikalev said afterwards.

The spacecraft delivered to the ISS the crew of the 21st visiting expedition: Belarus’ Marina Vasilevskaya, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson.

Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will stay on the ISS for 12 days and will return April 6 in the Soyuz MS-24 capsule with NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara. Dyson's mission will last until September, after which she will return to Earth with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (TASS special correspondent on the ISS) and Nikolay Chub.

Initially, Roscosmos planned to launch the spacecraft on Thursday, March 21, as the ballistic conditions would have allowed for an ultra-fast two-orbit flight to the ISS in just 3.5 hours. However, 20 seconds before liftoff, the launch was aborted automatically and had to be postponed until Saturday. The delay caused a revision of the rendezvous pattern. It took the cosmonauts two days to reach the orbital outpost.