New International Crew Arrives at ISS on Soyuz MS-27
The Soyuz MS-27 crew arrived at the International Space Station this morning to replace Soyuz MS-26, continuing the 24-year pattern of maintaining permanent human presence through regular crew rotations. Soyuz MS-26 and Soyuz MS-27 are each composed of two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut highlighting the international character of the U.S.-Russian-Canadian-Japanese-European outpost in Earth orbit.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Aleksey Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:47 am ET and docked with the space station just over three hours later at 4:57 am ET. After leak checks and pressurization, the hatches between Soyuz and the ISS opened at 7:28 am ET and they were greeted with hugs by the seven crew members already there, four who are part of NASA’s Crew-10 mission and the three on Soyuz MS-26.
With rare exception, Russia’s Soyuz and NASA’s Crew Dragon missions always carry at least one American and one Russian to ensure one from each country is aboard the ISS to operate the interdependent Russian and American segments. Astronauts from other countries also fly on both vehicles. JAXA’s Takuya Onishi is a member of Crew-10 and will soon take over command of the ISS from Aleksey Ovchinin, who’s returning to Earth in 11 days on Soyuz MS-26.
This is the first spaceflight for Kim and Zubritsky, but the third for Ryzhikov. They will stay for 8 months, a bit longer than the typical 6-month mission, returning in December. Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com reports that 8-month missions likely will be the norm going forward. He told SpacePolicyOnline.com today that Roscosmos is trying to save money by reducing the flight rate to 1.5 per year instead of two, which required them to certify Soyuz spacecraft to remain in space for an extra two months.
Soyuz MS-27 is replacing Soyuz MS-26’s Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Don Pettit. They’ll undock on April 19 and land in Kazakhstan on April 20 local time, which coincidentally is Pettit’s 70th birthday. He is NASA’s oldest active astronaut and a renowned space photographer who has taken amazing images of the Earth and the cosmos. See more of his photos on X (@astro_Pettit).
Earthly eyeball; @Space_Station with a 360 degree view. pic.twitter.com/zWBErFSnNf
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 1, 2025
Green vaporous turbulence; tonight’s show of aurora from @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/ZX0dINFhLa
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) April 5, 2025
Cosmic colors at sunrise; never get tired of seeing what the new day brings pic.twitter.com/jLLzMIbOzi
— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) February 26, 2025
The ISS has been permanently occupied by international crews since November 2, 2000. Starting in 2020 when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon entered service, the typical crew size is seven: four who come and go on Crew Dragon and three on Soyuz. The size increases temporarily during these several-day crew handovers or when visitors stop by on private astronaut flights.
During their missions, ISS crews conduct a wide range of scientific experiments and perform maintenance on the aging facility. They each also spend between two and two-and-a-half hours a day exercising so they are ready to return to Earth’s gravity.
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