INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, July 16. /TASS/. TASS’ seventh special correspondent Sergey Kud-Sverchkov handed over his post to his colleague, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who will become the first female to hold the position.

"I have handed over the post of a TASS special correspondent to Anna. So, news will now be reported by her! I am adamant that things should go as planned and the next news will be about arrangements and the return of our crew home," Kud-Sverchkov shared.

"I take over from Sergey Kud-Sverchkov as [TASS] bureau chief on board the International Space Station. The ISS-74 crew gives the floor to the ISS-75 crew," Kikina said.

A Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle lifted off from the Baikonur spaceport on July 14 carrying the primary crew of the ISS’ 75th long-duration expedition. The crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, the mission commander, and Anna Kikina, as well as NASA astronaut Anil Menon. The mission is expected to last 261 days.

In 2021, TASS and Russia’s state-run space corporation signed a memorandum on cooperation to open the news agency’s bureau aboard the ISS. Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin served as the first TASS special correspondent, and Oleg Artemyev succeeded him as the second special correspondent. The post was later held by Dmitry Petelin, Oleg Kononenko, Ivan Vagner, and Alexey Zubritsky before Kud-Sverchkov took over.