NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and her crewmates arrive safely at the space station

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts arrived aboard the International Space Station on October 14, returning a medical researcher to the orbiting laboratory ahead of the 20th anniversary of the uninterrupted human presence in space.

The docking of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft to the station’s Rassvet module occurred at 4:48 a.m. EDT, after a two-orbit, three-hour flight that brought Rubins, Sergey Ryzhikov, and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov to the lab. orbital. The Soyuz spacecraft launched at 1:45 a.m. (10:45 a.m. Kazakhstan time) on Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov are joined by NASA Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, who have been aboard the complex since April. NASA Television and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of the hatch opening starting at 6 a.m.

Ryzhikov will become the commander when Expedition 64 begins on Wednesday, October 21, with the departure of Cassidy, Vagner and Ivanishin after their six-month stay. The change of command ceremony with all crew members is scheduled for Tuesday, October 20 at 4:15 pm and will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

This is the second space flight for Rubins and Ryzhikov and the first for Kud-Sverchkov, who will live and work aboard the outpost for six months. The trio will conduct research in technology development, Earth science, biology, human research, and more.

During Rubins’ first spaceflight in 2016, he became the first person to sequence DNA in space. Rubins earned a BA in molecular biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in cancer biology from the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California.

Research conducted in microgravity helps NASA prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars and helps improve life on Earth.

During Expedition 64, the crew will grow by four more members with the arrival of Crew-1 aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon on the first operational commercial mission to the space station, returning the ability to regularly launch humans from the United States for the first time since your retirement. of the space shuttle program in 2011. Crew-1 is currently scheduled for launch in November.