NASA astronaut Don Pettit, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on September 11, 2024, bringing the number of astronauts on-site to 12 for the 13-day handover period.
After a two-orbit, three-hour journey to the station, the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft automatically docked to the orbiting laboratory’s Rassvet module at 3:32 p.m (EDT). The spacecraft launched at 12:23 p.m. (EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Onboard the ISS, the trio will join Expedition 71 crew members, including NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko.
Expedition 72 will begin on September 23 upon the departure of Dyson, Chub, and off-going station commander Kononenko. Their departures complete a six-month stay for Dyson and a year-long expedition for Chub and Kononenko.
Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner will spend approximately six months aboard the orbital outpost advancing scientific research as Expedition 71/72 crew members before returning to Earth in the spring of 2025. This is Pettit and Ovchinin’s fourth spaceflight and Vagner’s second.
During Expedition 72, two new crews will arrive aboard the space station, including NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9, launching in September, followed by Crew-10, scheduled for launch in February 2025.
