Two cosmonauts from Russia and an American astronaut rocket towards the International Space Station

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut were launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday (September 15), marking Moscow’s first crewed mission to the orbiting outpost in nearly a year. The launch took place amidst heightened tensions between the United States and Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine.

The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:44 am ET, carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara.

Reports indicated that the crew was expected to dock at the ISS approximately three hours after launch.

During a pre-flight press conference held on Thursday (September 14), Kononenko indirectly alluded to the tensions between Washington and Moscow, emphasizing the close cooperation between cosmonauts and astronauts in space. He stated, “Unlike on Earth, we hear each other there, and we understand each other, and we are very sensitive to our relationships. We always take care of each other.”

O’Hara highlighted the ISS’s role in fostering international collaboration, saying, “I’m excited to get on board and see the crewmates who are waiting for us.”

Kononenko, aged 59, and Chub, aged 39, are scheduled to spend a year on the ISS, while O’Hara, aged 40, will spend six months aboard. This mission marked the first spaceflight for both O’Hara and Chub.

Chub expressed that traveling to space had been his “childhood dream,” and he had dedicated “all his life” to achieving this goal.

The launch followed Russia’s recent lunar mission failure, where the Luna-25 probe crashed into the Moon. The incident occurred when the probe entered an uncontrolled orbit after an “abnormal situation” during a maneuver. Preliminary investigations determined that the lander “ceased to exist following a collision with the Moon’s surface.” Roscosmos initiated a probe to ascertain the cause of the crash, stating that an “emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station during the operation, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters.”