The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft heads toward the International Space Station

the Soyuz MS-25 He flew towards International Space Station, after being postponed for two days due to a battery problem. The launch pad lifted off from pad 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 23 at 4:36 a.m. local time. NASA astronaut on board Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky H Marina Vasilievskayathe first Belarusian astronaut to enter orbit after independence in 1991. The Russian rocket was scheduled to take off on March 21 but was prevented. About 20 seconds from take-off Due to a technical defect, the voltage in the power cell decreased. A 48-hour glide would result in a four-day delay in arriving at the ISS due to a different trajectory.

This is Novistki's fourth assignment and Deason's third. Novitsky and Vasilevskaya will remain on the ISS for only 12 days, while Dyson will remain on the space station until September. Dyson and Vasilievskaya are the first women to launch together on a Russian spacecraft. MS-25 is the 71st Russian Soyuz vehicle to fly to the International Space Station since 2000 and the 154th to fly since 1967.

Top image: Soyuz launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls