Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft carrying Russian-U.S. crew docks with ISS - Roscosmos broadcast

MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax) - The Soyuz MS-22 piloted spacecraft carrying a Russian-American crew has reached the International Space Station (ISS) following a super-fast-track rendezvous profile and has docked with the Rassvet module manually, as seen from the docking procedure broadcast live by Roscosmos.

After being launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome earlier on Wednesday, the Soyuz MS-22 docked with the Rassvet module at 8:06 p.m. Moscow time. Several minutes before the docking, the crew switched to manual control.

The Soyuz MS-22 had separated as planned from the third stage of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle at 5:03 p.m. Moscow time and set a course for the ISS. The crew includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio.

The launch vehicle lifted off as scheduled from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31 at 4:54 p.m. Moscow time.

The crew will spend 188 days at the ISS, and the mission will be completed on March 28, 2023. Soyuz MS-22 commander Prokopyev said earlier that the crew would perform five spacewalks. The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress MS-21 and Progress MS-22 are also expected to arrive at the ISS as part of this mission.