Soyuz MS-25

Soyuz MS-25

Names	ISS 71S
Mission type	Crewed mission to ISS
Operator	Roscosmos
Website	en.roscosmos.ru
Mission duration	195 days (planned)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type	Soyuz MS
Manufacturer	RSC Energia
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Tracy Caldwell-Dyson
Launching	Oleg Novitsky Marina Vasilevskaya
Landing	Oleg Kononenko Nikolai Chub
Start of mission
Launch date	21 March 2024 (planned)
Rocket	Soyuz-2.1a
Launch site	Baikonur Cosmodrome, Site 31
Contractor	Progress Rocket Space Centre
End of mission
Landing date	24 September 2024 (planned)
Landing site	Kazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Inclination	51.66°
Docking with ISS
Docking port	Prichal Nadir
(L-R) Novitsky, Vasilevskaya, Dyson Soyuz programme (crewed)

Soyuz MS-25 is a planned Russian crewed Soyuz spaceflight to launch from Baikonur on 21 March 2024 to the International Space Station.

Crew

American astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson replaced Alexander Grebenkin as a part of the Soyuz-Dragon crew swap system of having at least American and Russian crew member on ISS. This allows continuous space station occupation by US and Russia and keep backup crew scenarios to prevent vehicle either vehicle grounding like Soyuz MS-10 launch failure or to compensate for delays in launch of crew rotation missions of either vehicles like SpaceX Crew-3 that was delayed due to unfavorable launch weather conditions.

This the first non-Russian flight of two women astronauts/cosmonauts, Tracy Caldwell-Dyson from US and Marina Vasilevskaya from Belarus, on a Soyuz mission. Notably, the spacecraft commander is Chervyen, Minsk Voblast, Byelorussian SSR, USSR (now Belarus) born retired Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky.

Primary Crew

Position	Launching Crew member	Landing Crew member
Commander	Oleg Novitsky, Roscosmos Visiting Fourth spaceflight	Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos Expedition 69/70/71 Fifth spaceflight
Flight Engineer/ Spaceflight Participant	Marina Vasilevskaya, Belarus Space Agency Visiting First spaceflight	Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos Expedition 69/70/71 First spaceflight
Flight Engineer	Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, NASA Expedition 70/71 Third spaceflight

Backup crew

Position	Crew member
Commander	Ivan Vagner, Roscosmos
Spaceflight participant	Anastasia Lenkova, Belarus Space Agency
Flight Engineer	Donald Pettit, NASA

Flight

Dyson will launch on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft and spend approximately six months aboard the International Space Station. She will travel to the station with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, both of whom will spend approximately 12 days aboard the orbital complex as a part of 21st ISS visiting expedition.

Undocking and Return

After completing her expedition, Dyson will return to Earth on September 24, 2024 with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft. Kononenko and Chub are there on ISS since September 2023 with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft. Kononenko and Chub will remain aboard the orbital laboratory for about one year. If the mission lasts 300–365 days, Kononenko will have spent a total of 1,036–1,101 days in space, exceeding the current record of 878 days by Gennady Padalka. He will thus also become the first person to stay 1,000 days in space. O’Hara, who will spend six months aboard the space station, will return with Novitsky and Vasilevskaya on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from NASA Astronaut Tracy C. Dyson Receives Third Space Station Assignment. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.