A Russian space mission carrying American and Russian astronauts had docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday. The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft, which had left Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:47 AM local time (05:47 GMT), docked at the ISS safely.
This mission is one of the few instances of cooperation between the US and Russia, following the tense relations following Russia’s incursion into Ukraine in February 2022. On board the spacecraft are NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Alexei Zubritsky. The spacecraft arrived at the ISS a few hours after takeoff, according to Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos.
The principal task of this Soyuz flight is to perform 50 space experiments, and it is supposed to return to Earth on December 9. Interestingly enough, the Soyuz rocket was ornamented to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Despite space cooperation, the US and other Western nations have suspended most other cooperation with Roscosmos due to sanctions on Russia. Kirill Dmitriev, the investment ambassador of President Vladimir Putin, highlighted the launch as a sign of the decades-long partnership in space exploration, which started with the historic Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, the initial international crewed space docking.
Dmitriev reported Russian-American cooperation in space goes on and published a video of the rocket launch on his official Telegram account. Dmitriev also spoke about Russia’s potential contribution to future Mars missions that SpaceX is to undertake.
Even though Russia’s space program has been a pride for the country, it has not been exempt from challenges such as poor funding and corruption. The recent Luna-25 mission to the moon flopped after the probe crashed on the way to land in August 2023.
In order to meet such challenges, Russia is boosting its space partnerships with countries, with China being the latest to send a probe to the far side of the moon. Russia will further boost its space partnerships in the near future, as it is planning to build its own space station, with the first two modules to be launched by 2027, as the ISS approaches the end of its lifeline.
