Soyuz, a rocket with the most launches in history will soon take three crew members astronaut Loral O’Hara and cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub to the International Space Station. It was today rolled out to the pad in advance whose image NASA has shared on its official X account. The Soyuz MS-24 mission will be launched on September 15, 2023, using Soyuz MS spacecraft atop a Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle, from Launch Complex 31/6, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Soyuz rocket was rolled out to the pad today in advance of launching @NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara and cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub to the @Space_Station Friday, Sept. 15. – More 📷: https://t.co/W88kV09ILT pic.twitter.com/Puwn57kO5k
— NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) September 12, 2023
Earlier this mission was planned to happen on March 16, 2023, but due to an issue in the docked Soyuz MS-22, the plan was dropped. Further, the mission was assigned to the Soyuz MS-24. If we talk about the Soyuz spacecraft, it first flew in the 1960s. Its external appearance is not said to have changed over time but the internal has been upgraded significantly.
Oleg Kononenko would be the commander of this mission and he has earlier performed two spacewalks. It will be his fifth spaceflight and will break the record of Gennady Padalka by spending 916 days in space. Flight Engineer Nikolai Chub and flight engineer Loral O’Hara would be traveling to space for the first time.
