On November 27th, a Soyuz spacecraft successfully delivered two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) for an extended eight-month stay. The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, launched by a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:27 a.m. Eastern time, reached orbit in just nine minutes and docked with the station’s Rassvet module at 7:34 a.m. Eastern.
The crew consisted of commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and fellow Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Mikaev, along with NASA astronaut Chris Williams. This marks the first flight for both Williams and Mikayev, while it’s the second mission for Kud-Sverchkov. They are replacing Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky from Roscosmos, and Jonny Kim from NASA, who are scheduled to return aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft on December 8th.
To accommodate the new Soyuz's arrival, a maneuver was required involving another spacecraft. Prior to the launch, controllers utilized the robotic arm to relocate the NG-23 Cygnus spacecraft from its berthing port on the Unity module. The Cygnus remained attached to the arm, positioned away from the port. NASA officials had indicated before the Cygnus launch in September that this move was necessary to prevent potential conflicts between Soyuz and Cygnus, which were located on neighboring ports.
“It has a corridor versus a straight line when it comes in,” Dina Contella, NASA ISS deputy program manager, said of Soyuz at a Sept. 12 briefing. If the spacecraft were to deviate slightly in that corridor, thruster firings could impinge on Cygnus. “Just to be on the safe side, we’re trying to keep the neighboring ports free,” she said. With the Soyuz successfully docked, Cygnus was reinstalled on its original port on Dec. 1, remaining there until its planned departure in March.
Notably, unlike many previous NASA missions, Williams did not hold a pre-launch press conference. A briefing scheduled for early October was canceled due to the government shutdown and was not subsequently rescheduled. Williams, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, mentioned in a NASA podcast that he received his flight assignment immediately after completing astronaut candidate training. He described diving into mission preparations, including familiarizing himself with the Soyuz spacecraft, as "really interesting and a great education." “It’s a little capsule,” he said of the Soyuz. “I mean, it’s more spacious than I think I thought at first, but it’s still a pretty tight squeeze.”