Soyuz Spacecraft Sets A Record By Taking Astronauts To ISS In Just 3 Hours

In what is being called the fastest journey to space from Earth, a three-person crew successfully reached the International Space Station on Wednesday aboard a Russian rocket, in just over three hours.

The mission of the Soyuz spacecraft had on-board two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut, and was carried out by Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

NASA

¡®A new record for flights to the International Space Station was set - the total time from launch to docking of the Soyuz MS-17 was three hours and three minutes¡¯, AFP quotes Roscosmos as saying.

Since the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet in 2011, it has been Roscosmos's job to ferry US astronauts to the ISS.

Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, and NASA's Kathleen Rubins, launched from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on Wednesday.

Usually, the journey to ISS takes about six hours. Before 2013 this time was about two days. Reportedly the manned journey on Wednesday even beat the fastest time for missions just carrying supplies to the station.

Also Read: US And Russian Astronaut Narrowly Escape Death After Their Soyuz Rocket Fails Mid-Launch

AFP

Only an unmanned Progress cargo space ship has previously used this profile which requires just two orbits before docking. The launch comes between two SpaceX missions - the first manned space flights to the ISS under NASA's aegis since 2011.

Before May 30, when US astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley arrived at the ISS thanks to tycoon Elon Musk, Russia and Baikonur had enjoyed a lucrative monopoly on manned missions to the ISS.

However the Dragon Endeavour craft only docked successfully with the ISS about nineteen hours after reaching orbit.

The NASA astronauts returned safely on August 2 and a fresh SpaceX launch is expected next month, according to AFP report. With private players like SpaceX and Boeing in the space game now, there's talk of a new "space race" between a number of countries.

Also Read: SpaceX Earth To Earth Rocket Flight Testing In Three Years, Will Land At Sea

NASA

Precautions such as tighter quarantine and mask-wearing before launch, have been taken due to the coronavirus pandemic. The astronauts and space officials rejected any concerns about a risk of infection on the ISS.

"We have a very strict quarantine, almost from March by my perception," Rubins - a microbiologist who researched the deadly Ebola virus before she began training as an astronaut - reportedly said.

Since 2000, the ISS has been permanently occupied and it is a rare example of cooperation between the US and Russia.

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