Crew of Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft arrives at Baikonur Cosmodrome for launch preparations

MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The main and backup crews of the Soyuz MS-26 manned spacecraft have arrived at Baikonur Cosmodrome to prepare for their journey to the International Space Station (ISS), Russia's Roscosmos state space corporation said on Monday.

"The main crew of Expedition 72 to the International Space Station including Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, as well as the backup crew comprising Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Alexei Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim, arrived at Krainy Airport of the city of Baikonur today," it said.

The crews will undergo a series of training sessions, briefings, and medical checkups over two weeks, Roscosmos said.

Soyuz MS-26 will launch on September 11. The planned duration of the expedition is 202 days, it said.

NASA's Pettit will travel to the ISS under a cross-flight agreement between Russia and the United States.

In July 2022, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on the cross flights of three Russian cosmonauts using U.S. Crew Dragon spacecraft and three U.S. astronauts using Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft in 2022-2024 as part of the ISS program.

In December 2023, Roscosmos said the agreement with NASA had been extended until 2025. Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Space Programs Sergei Krikalev told Interfax that the supplementary agreement envisaged two more cross flights to the ISS before 2025.

The team currently working on board the ISS includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA's Tracy Dyson, who arrived at the station on a Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft, Crew 8 members Roscosmos's Alexander Grebenkin and NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps. In addition, NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who arrived at the station on the new reusable U.S. Starliner spacecraft in early June, are also staying on board the station.