Roscosmos Launches Soyuz MS-21 with Three Cosmonauts

Soyuz 2.1a Launches Soyuz MS-21 | Credit: Roscosmos

On Friday, March 18 at 11:55am ET (15:55 UTC), Roscosmos launched the Soyuz MS-21 mission atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This was the first time an all-proffesional cosmonaut crew launches to the International Space Station. There were plans for a NASA astronaut to launch with two cosmonauts and for a cosmonaut to launch on Dragon Crew-4, but this arrangement was decided to be moved to Crew-5 (though this will likely not happen now due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine). The crew will dock to the Prichal Docking Module of the Russian Orbital Segment of the ISS at 2:o8pm ET (19:05 UTC).

The crew of Soyuz MS-21 | Credit: Roscosmos

The crew is:

- Commander Oleg Artemyev, 3rd spaceflight

- Flight Engineer 1 Denis Matveev, 1st spaceflight

- Flight Engineer 2 Sergey Korsakov, 1st spaceflight

This was the 60th Soyuz 2.1a launch and the 29th orbital launch attempt of 2022.

Disclaimer: Future Astronaut condemns the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. By writing this article, I do not support this invasion in any way. #StandwithUkraine