A little while ago, the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan with three people. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its route to the International Space Station, which requires about two days of journey.
The three crew members of the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, which include two visitors and a new International Space Station crew member completing Expedition 70 are:
Oleg Viktorovich Novitskiy. Born on October 12, 1971, at Cervien, in the then USSR and today in Belarus, he graduated from Kachinskoye Military Pilot School in 1994. After serving as a Russian Air Force pilot, in 2006 he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate. He’s already been on the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 33/34 between October 2012 and March 2013, as a member of Expedition 50/51 between November 2016 and June 2017, and as a member of Expedition 64/65 between April and October 2021.
Marina Vitalyevna Vasilevskaya. Born on September 14, 1990, in Belarus, she worked professionally in the field of ballroom dancing for 15 years before working for Belavia Airlines as a flight instructor and flight attendant. She won a competition aimed at awarding a place on a space mission in a collaboration with Russia to put a Belarusian woman in space.
Tracy Caldwell Dyson. Born on August 14, 1969, in Arcadia, California, USA, she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1993 from CSU Fullerton and then a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Davis. After teaching and conducting research at university, in 1998 she started working in various capacities for NASA and after some time, she also started training as an astronaut. She was already on the International Space Station in 2007, when she participated in the STS-118 mission on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and as a member of Expedition 23/24 between April and September 2010.
The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft is scheduled to reach the International Space Station on Monday at about 15.09 UTC. The Soyuz has an automated docking system, so it will reach the Prichal module on its own.
