Baikonur. Russia launched a Soyuz rocket this Friday towards the International Space Station (ISS) with two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut on board, an unusual symbol of cooperation in a particularly tense period in the relationship between Russia and the United States.
The rocket took off at night at the scheduled time (15:44 GMT) from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to images broadcast live by the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.
The launch came less than a month after the loss of the Russian lunar probe Luna-25, which crashed on Earth’s satellite. A failure that revealed the difficulties of the Russian space sector for years, due to lack of financing and several corruption scandals.
The Soyuz rocket must carry to the ISS Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (59 years old) and Nikolai Chub (39), and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara (40), who like Chub flies into space for the first time .
“It’s a very special moment, and I have a very good feeling to be part of something that goes beyond us and that has brought together so many people. I am excited about this mission,” O’Hara said Thursday at a press conference. in Baikonur.
“The atmosphere is good and the crew is ready to fulfill all the tasks entrusted to them,” said Nikolai Chub.
The three will take over from the Russians Sergei Prokopiev and Dmitri Petelin, and the American Frank Rubio, who arrived at the ISS a year ago.
Its mission was prolonged due to damage to the return ship, the Soyuz MS-22, which in December 2022 suffered a major leak when it was moored to the ISS. According to Moscow, the incident was due to the impact of a micrometeorite.
The space sector is one of the few in which there is cooperation between Russia and the United States, in a very tense context due to the conflict in Ukraine.
The American Loral O’Hara therefore considered on Thursday that the ISS is “a symbol of peace and cooperation.”
“Unlike what happens on land (…) where countries often do not understand each other, up there we understand each other very well, and we are very sensitive about our relationships. We care about each other,” Kononenko added.
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