The Russian spacecraft "Soyuz" with an American, a Russian and the first Belarusian woman in history took off today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit around the Earth.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that the "Soyuz" took off at 12:36 CET and soon entered Earth orbit.
Originally scheduled for Thursday, the takeoff was postponed to today due to technical reasons at the last minute.
The crew going to the ISS consists of American astronaut Tracy Dyson, experienced Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and Marina Vasilevskaya - the first Belarusian cosmonaut, who is 33 years old.
"Everything is fine on board," Nowitzki said shortly after liftoff, as broadcast by Roskosmos.
The Soyuz should reach the ISS after 50 and a half hours on Monday at 15.10:XNUMX CET.
Russia's space sector has struggled for years with funding, corruption and setbacks such as the loss of the Luna-25 probe that crashed on the moon in August 2023.
In addition, three Russian components of the ISS have been leaking coolant in recent months.
Russia's space sector is also limited by a lack of innovation as it relies on proven but outdated Soviet technology.
"Soyuz" have long been the only way to get to the International Space Station, and for several years the American private company "SpaceX" of billionaire Elon Musk has been carrying out the transport.
All this did not reduce the ambitions of Russia, which would like to end its participation in the ISS next year and concentrate on building its own space station.
The decision to abandon the ISS as one of the rare areas of cooperation between Moscow and Washington was also contributed to by the almost complete break in relations with the USA due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
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