Crew Dragon with Russian cosmonauts aboard launched to ISS

WASHINGTON. March 2 (Interfax) - The SpaceX company's Crew Dragon manned spacecraft with three astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut on board was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, NASA said.

The international crew travelling to the ISS aboard the Crew Dragon consists of NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, the United Arab Emirates' astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev.

The Crew Dragon was launched with the help of the SpaceX company's Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 00:34 a.m. EST.

NASA has said that the Crew Dragon is scheduled to dock to the ISS on March 3, 24.5 hours after its liftoff. It is already the fourth flight of this reusable spacecraft.

The crew is expected to stay aboard the ISS for six months.

Two missions are currently underway at the ISS under the Roscosmos-NASA agreement - Russia's Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio was launched to the ISS in September 2022. The U.S. Crew Dragon-5 blasted off in October of last year to bring Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina to the ISS.