NASA Astronaut Don Pettit and Crewmates Arrive at ISS for Six-Month Mission

During their six-month stay, Pettit and his other crew members will carry out operational duties and scientific research

On Wednesday, the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner made a successful landing at the International Space Station (ISS). The arrival of the three makes the station's population twelve for the duration of the 13-day crew handover period.

At 3:32 p.m. EDT, the Soyuz automatically docked at the station's Rassvet module after a quick three-hour, two-orbit flight. The spacecraft took off earlier in the day at 12:23 p.m. EDT from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome. At 5:30 p.m. EDT, NASA will broadcast the crew's hatch opening on a number of platforms, including NASA+, YouTube, and the agency's website. Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner will board the spacecraft to become a part of the Expedition 71 crew, which consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko, together with NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams. On September 23, Dyson, Chub, and Kononenko will depart after their extended missions, marking the beginning of Expedition 72.

During their six-month stay, Pettit and his other crew members will carry out operational duties and scientific research. Their return to Earth is scheduled for the spring of 2025. Meanwhile, the International Space Station (ISS) will welcome two additional crews, NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 and Crew-10, in September 2024 and February 2025, respectively, to continue the station's busy rotation of crewed missions.