{"id":23651,"date":"2025-11-26T21:12:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/soyuz-ms-28-launches-three-new-crew-members-to-iss\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T21:12:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:12:33","slug":"soyuz-ms-28-launches-three-new-crew-members-to-iss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/soyuz-ms-28-launches-three-new-crew-members-to-iss\/","title":{"rendered":"Soyuz MS-28 launches three new crew members to ISS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The next crewed mission to the International Space Station has launched from Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-28 mission, carrying two Roscosmos cosmonauts and a single NASA astronaut to the orbiting laboratory, lifted off from Site 31\/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday, Nov. 27, at 09:27 UTC. The mission marks the final launch to the Station as part of Expedition 73, with Expedition 74 set to begin in early December.<\/p>\n<p>Following launch, the Soyuz spacecraft completed just two orbits of Earth before performing an automated docking with the <em>Rassvet<\/em> module at 12:38 UTC on Thursday. Once docked to the Station, the Soyuz spacecraft was prepared for hatch opening, and the three crew members entered the Station. The Soyuz MS-28 crew is expected to live on the orbiting laboratory for eight months, with an undocking currently scheduled for late July 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"NASA Astronaut Chris Williams Soyuz MS-28 Launch\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gWhAbWnm_oM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" name=\"fitvid0\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Soyuz MS-28 crew<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz MS-28 crew is comprised of two Russian cosmonauts and a single NASA astronaut. Two crew members made their first flights to space. Crews that fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz usually feature a commander and two flight engineers.<\/p>\n<p>Soyuz MS-28\u2019s commander is Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. Born in August 1983 in Soviet Kazakhstan, Kud-Sverchkov made his second flight to the Station on Soyuz MS-28 after serving as a flight engineer on Soyuz MS-17 in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>After graduating from Moscow State Technical University with a degree in rocket engineering, Kud-Sverchkov worked as an engineer at RSC Energia \u2014 the manufacturer of Soyuz spacecraft \u2014 before being selected for cosmonaut training in April 2010. Kud-Sverchkov completed training in August 2012 and was assigned to ISS Expedition 63\/64 in May 2020. The cosmonaut spent 184 days, 23 hours, and 10 minutes in orbit during his first mission&nbsp;before returning to Earth in April 2021.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110837\" class=\"size-full wp-image-110837\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Expedition_74_crew_members_pose_for_a_portrait_at_NASAs_Johnson_Space_Center_in_Houston_Texas_jsc2024e077037_alt.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1852\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Expedition_74_crew_members_pose_for_a_portrait_at_NASAs_Johnson_Space_Center_in_Houston_Texas_jsc2024e077037_alt.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Expedition_74_crew_members_pose_for_a_portrait_at_NASAs_Johnson_Space_Center_in_Houston_Texas_jsc2024e077037_alt-350x253.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Expedition_74_crew_members_pose_for_a_portrait_at_NASAs_Johnson_Space_Center_in_Houston_Texas_jsc2024e077037_alt-484x350.jpg 484w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Expedition_74_crew_members_pose_for_a_portrait_at_NASAs_Johnson_Space_Center_in_Houston_Texas_jsc2024e077037_alt-768x556.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Expedition_74_crew_members_pose_for_a_portrait_at_NASAs_Johnson_Space_Center_in_Houston_Texas_jsc2024e077037_alt-1920x1389.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Expedition_74_crew_members_pose_for_a_portrait_at_NASAs_Johnson_Space_Center_in_Houston_Texas_jsc2024e077037_alt-1170x846.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110837\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soyuz MS-28\u2019s crew (left to right): Christopher Williams, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikaev. (Credit: NASA\/James Blair)<\/p>\n<p>The first of Soyuz MS-28\u2019s two flight engineers is Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Mikayev. A former military pilot and Major in the Russian Air Force, Mikayev was born in August 1986 in Irkutsk, Soviet Russia, and graduated from the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. Roscosmos selected Mikayev for two-year cosmonaut training in 2018 as part of the 17th Cosmonaut Group.<\/p>\n<p>After completing cosmonaut training, Mikayev was open for assignments to long-duration missions to the ISS. He was first assigned to Soyuz MS-27 as a reserve cosmonaut and backup flight engineer, in case any of the primary Soyuz MS-27 crew were unable to fly.&nbsp; After Soyuz MS-27 launched in April 2025 with its primary crew, Mikayev was reassigned to Soyuz MS-28 as a flight engineer on the primary crew. Soyuz MS-28 serves as Mikayev\u2019s first flight to space and the ISS.<\/p>\n<p>The final Soyuz MS-28 crew member is NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, serving as the second flight engineer. Born in New York City and raised in Potomac, Maryland, Williams graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. Williams continued his education and graduated with a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012. His Ph.D. thesis and research focused on astrophysics and radio cosmology, and Williams was a part of the team that constructed the Murchison Widefield Array low-frequency radio telescope in Australia.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-110838\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46-525x350.jpg 525w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46-585x390.jpg 585w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-46-263x175.jpg 263w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110838\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soyuz MS-28 crew during training. (Credit: RKK Energia)<\/p>\n<p>Following graduate school, Williams joined Harvard Medical School as a professor and clinical physicist, and he researched new image-guidance techniques for cancer treatment at hospitals and health institutes in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2021, as part of NASA Astronaut Group 23 (nicknamed \u201cThe Flies\u201d), the agency announced it had selected Williams as an astronaut candidate. Williams reported for training in January 2022 and completed two years of training.<\/p>\n<p>After being opened to assignments in 2024, Williams was assigned to Soyuz MS-28 in early 2025. Soyuz MS-28 serves as William\u2019s first flight into space and to the ISS.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz MS-28 backup crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, and NASA astronaut Anil Menon. Dubrov serves as the backup commander, while Kikina and Menon serve as backup flight engineers. Since none of the primary Soyuz MS-28 crew members needed replacement before launch, Dubrov, Kikina, and Menon will comprise the next crewed Soyuz mission to the ISS, Soyuz MS-29, which is scheduled to launch in July 2026.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110839\" class=\"size-full wp-image-110839\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54942760547_7aaf42cc63_5k-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1940\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54942760547_7aaf42cc63_5k-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54942760547_7aaf42cc63_5k-350x265.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54942760547_7aaf42cc63_5k-462x350.jpg 462w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54942760547_7aaf42cc63_5k-768x582.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54942760547_7aaf42cc63_5k-1920x1455.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54942760547_7aaf42cc63_5k-1170x887.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110839\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Soyuz MS-28 backup crew (Menon, Dubrov, and Kikina) watch as the Soyuz MS-28 rocket and spacecraft rollout for launch. (Credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls)<\/p>\n<p>Soyuz MS-28\u2019s vehicles and launch<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"widget-title penci-border-arrow\">See Also<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Soyuz MS-28 Updates<\/li>\n<li>Expedition 73 Updates<\/li>\n<li>NSF Store<\/li>\n<li>Click Here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Currently, all Soyuz crewed missions launch to the ISS atop a Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket. Crew members fly to the Station inside the Soyuz MS spacecraft \u2014 the most recent iteration of Russia\u2019s long-serving Soyuz spacecraft, which has been flying since the 1960s.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cMS\u201d in the Soyuz MS name stands for \u201cmodernized systems.\u201d The Soyuz MS was introduced in 2016 as an upgrade to the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft, with improved navigation, communications, and other onboard systems. All Soyuz MS spacecraft are manufactured by RSC Energia, which has been constructing all Soyuz spacecraft for the Soviet Union and Russia since 1967.<\/p>\n<p>The Soyuz MS spacecraft flying on Soyuz MS-28 is Soyuz MS No. 753, flying with the callsign \u201c<em>Gyrfalcon<\/em>.\u201d Notably, this was not the original Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to fly Soyuz MS-28. Soyuz MS No. 759 was initially allocated to Soyuz MS-28, but after sustaining significant damage to its heat shield during post-production testing at RSC Energia, Soyuz MS No. 753 was assigned to the mission. No. 753 was initially planned for use on a commercial crewed mission to the ISS. However, after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Roscosmos\u2019 commercial contracts were cancelled, freeing up Soyuz MS No. 753 for a regular crew rotation flight to the ISS.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110840\" class=\"size-full wp-image-110840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57-525x350.jpg 525w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57-585x390.jpg 585w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Soyuz-2-Soyuz-MS-28-57-263x175.jpg 263w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110840\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft is prepared for fairing encapsulation. (Credit: Roscosmos)<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned, the Soyuz MS spacecraft flies to orbit atop the Soyuz 2.1a rocket. One of the two variants of the Soyuz 2 rocket introduced in the mid-2000s, the Soyuz 2.1a first flew in November 2004 and has successfully flown 73 missions with two failures and one partial failure. Soyuz 2.1a can launch from four launch sites across Russia and Kazakhstan: Site 31\/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Sites 43\/3 and 43\/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, and Site 1S at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.<\/p>\n<p>Soyuz 2.1a is a 46.3 m tall, 10.3 m diameter three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle manufactured by RKTs Progress. The four strap-on liquid-fuelled boosters serve as the rocket\u2019s first stage, with each booster featuring a single RD-107A engine. The four boosters are strapped onto the second stage (also known as the core stage), which features a single RD-108A engine. Lastly, the third stage sits atop the core stage and features an RD-0110 engine. All three stages utilize liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene (RP-1) propellants.<\/p>\n<p>Due to the nature of orbital dynamics and the ISS\u2019s orbit, Soyuz MS-28 had an instantaneous launch window at 09:27 UTC. If there were any delays in the countdown to launch, the mission would have been scrubbed and moved to a backup launch opportunity. A scrub would have also required a new docking time.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110841\" class=\"size-full wp-image-110841\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54943901299_ca027bd271_6k-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1516\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54943901299_ca027bd271_6k-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54943901299_ca027bd271_6k-350x207.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54943901299_ca027bd271_6k-591x350.jpg 591w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54943901299_ca027bd271_6k-768x455.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54943901299_ca027bd271_6k-1920x1137.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/54943901299_ca027bd271_6k-1170x693.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110841\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soyuz 2.1a and Soyuz MS-28 are raised vertical at Site 31\/6. (Credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls)<\/p>\n<p>Following launch at 09:27 UTC from Site 31\/6, Soyuz and the Soyuz MS-28 crew flew on a northeastern trajectory out of Baikonur. Following first and second stage separation, the third stage inserted the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft and crew into orbit. Soyuz MS-28, filled with around 125 kg of crew and cargo, then separated from the third stage and spend the next three hours matching its orbit to that of the ISS.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, at 12:38 UTC, just T+03:11:00 hours after launch, Soyuz MS-28 docked to the ISS, beginning an eight-month stay on the orbiting laboratory for the three crew members.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Lead image: Soyuz MS-28 on the pad at Baikonur. Credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The next crewed mission to the International Space Station has launched from Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-28 mission, carrying two Roscosmos cosmonauts and a single NASA astronaut to the orbiting laboratory, lifted off from Site 31\/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday, Nov. 27, at 09:27 UTC. The mission marks the final launch to the Station [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2951,1601,6828,7967,7968,717,233,190,234,352,1302,6831,514],"class_list":["post-23651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astronaut","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-christopher-williams","tag-cosmonaut","tag-expedition-73","tag-international-space-station","tag-iss","tag-nasa","tag-roscosmos","tag-russia","tag-soyuz","tag-soyuz-ms-28","tag-soyuz-2-1a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}