On September the 15th at 15:44 UTC a Soyuz 2.1a lifted off carrying Soyuz MS-24 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Soyuz MS-24 is carrying three crew members to the International Space Station, they are; Loral O'Hara, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolay Chub.
Soyuz MS-24 docked at the International Space Station at 18:53 UTC to the Rassvet module with the hatch opening at 21:16 UTC, increasing the crew count of the space station to ten. Kononenko and Chub will be staying onboard the International Space Station for a year with O'Hara staying for six months. Both O'Hara and Chub are on their first trip to space with Kononenko making his fifth trip to space.
With the arrival of the Soyuz MS-24 crew astronauts Francisco Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev, and Dmitry Petelin are expected to return to Earth on September 27th after over a year in space due to their original spacecraft being hit by a micro-meteroite.
What is the Soyuz spacecraft?
The Soyuz spacecraft is used by Roscosmos to send crew to and from the International Space Station with its design dating back to the days of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Soyuz spacecraft consists of three modules; the orbital module, the descent module, and the instrumentation and service module. The orbital module is used to give the crew extra space once on orbit and to store cargo. The descent module is where the crew are during launch and landing is the only part of the spacecraft that survives re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. The instrumentation and service module is where the spacecrafts main engines are as well as its fuel. The solar panels to generate power for the spacecraft are also attached to the instrumentation and service module.
