Soyuz MS-28 Arrives at ISS

Soyuz MS-28 arrived at the International Space Station this morning with its crew of two Russian cosmonauts and NASA’s Chris Williams.  Unlike most Russian crew rotations, they are scheduled to stay for eight months instead of six as Russia reduces its cadence of Soyuz launches. NASA similarly is considering whether to extend mission durations to reduce the number of launches as a cost saving measure.

Today’s launch was on time at 4:27 am ET from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Williams and his Russian crewmates, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev, docked at the ISS just over three hours later at 7:34 am EST.

They are joining NASA’s Crew-11 — Zena Cardman (NASA), Mike Fincke (NASA), Kimiya Yui (JAXA), and Oleg Platonov (Roscosmos) — and replacing the Soyuz MS-27 crew:  Roscosmos’s Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky and NASA’s Jonny Kim who arrived on April 8.  They’ll undock in the evening of December 8 EST (December 9 UTC) and land in Kazakhstan about 3.5 hours later.  Like the Soyuz MS-28 crew, they’ll have spent approximately 8 months on the ISS.

As the ISS celebrates 25 years of permanent occupancy, NASA and Roscosmos are looking for ways to save money. Fewer launches are one measure even though it means extending the duration of each crew’s mission. Astronauts have stayed for much longer than six months either by design or necessity — Frank Rubio holds the U.S. record at 371 days — without undue health effects. Soyuz MS-28 is scheduled for eight months.  Although Crew-11 was launched on a nominal six-month mission, NASA said it might be extended to eight months if they can complete certification of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to remain docked for that period of time. Right now it’s certified for 210 days.

NASA’s ISS money worries stem from constrained budgets since FY2024 and the need to build a new U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) to deorbit the ISS into the Pacific Ocean at the end of its lifetime in 2030. NASA awarded SpaceX a $843 million contract to build a U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), but that does not include launch. NASA estimates the total cost at about $1.5 billion.  Congress has not increased the ISS budget commensurately.

Beyond 2030, NASA wants to be just one of many customers of commercial space stations and anticipates at least one commercial space station will be available by then.

 

This article has been updated.