Three crew members, consisting of astronauts from the United States and Russia, completed an eight-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS) and landed safely in Kazakhstan this Sunday. The Soyuz MS-28 capsule executed a parachute landing in the Dzhezkazgan area, bringing back American Chris Williams along with Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev.
The total duration of the mission was 241 days in orbit. For Chris Williams and Sergei Mikaev, this marked their space debut, while Sergei Kud-Sverchkov completed his second space mission. After the rescue, the team was transported by helicopter to the city of Karaganda. From there, their paths diverged: Williams flew to the Johnson Space Center belonging to NASA in the United States. The Russian cosmonauts, meanwhile, proceeded to Star City, a training center located near Moscow.
Despite the United States and Russia being involved in diplomatic disagreements outside the space environment—a scenario that has intensified since 2022—both countries maintain a historic collaboration in the orbital laboratory. Their respective agencies continue to share seats on both American and Russian vehicles, ensuring a constant presence of astronauts on the ISS.
The station is already operating with new occupants. The replacement crew consists of American Anil Menon and Russians Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, who were launched from Kazakhstan. This launch featured the participation of Jared Isaacman, who holds the position of NASA chief, marking the first visit of an American agency leader to the Baikonur base in eight years. They will join astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrei Fedyaev to continue the work conducted aboard.
Russia conducted a crewed launch on Tuesday, the 14th, departing from the Baikonur Cosmodrome located in Kazakhstan. This mission is destined for the International Space Station (ISS).
Aboard the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft are NASA astronaut Anil Menon, along with Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. These three members will be part of the station's 75th rotating crew.
This launch signals the reactivation of crewed flights from a launchpad that had recently been repaired after months of inactivity. The event was attended jointly by leaders from NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Less than ten minutes after liftoff, Soyuz MS-29 reached orbit, beginning a journey of about three hours to the ISS, where docking will occur. The crew is expected to remain in the orbital laboratory for approximately eight months.
Jared Isaacman, administrator of NASA, traveled to Baikonur to monitor the launch and meet with Dmitry Bakanov, CEO of Roscosmos. This meeting marked the first visit by an American space agency leader to the Russian launchpad since 2018.
Tensions generated by the war between Russia and Ukraine were a factor that, in recent years, prevented Bill Nelson, who was NASA administrator under former US President Joe Biden, from participating in such meetings.
Mission Expedition 75 constitutes Anil Menon's first space flight; he is a 49-year-old NASA astronaut. There is a connection between Menon and Isaacman: in 2024, the NASA administrator participated, as a billionaire private astronaut, in the Polaris Dawn space mission, which took place in a SpaceX capsule.
On that occasion, Isaacman traveled with SpaceX engineer Anna Menon, Anil Menon's wife, and two other people on a private mission funded by him. This same mission also represented the resumption of crewed flights from Launchpad 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Previously, when a crew was launched from this same location, the rocket caused considerable damage to the historic pad, temporarily rendering the only Russian complex capable of conducting crewed launches inoperable. Restoring the structure required several months of repairs. Activities at the pad resumed in March of this year, initially with the sending of an uncrewed cargo mission to the ISS. With the launch of Soyuz MS-29, crewed flights have returned to this facility.
