NASA prepares crew launch report; trio to join Expedition 71

NASA astronaut Don Pettit will fly aboard the Roskosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft, accompanied by cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner, to the International Space Station, where they will join the Expedition 71 crew and continue their scientific research.

Pettit, Ovchinin, and Wagner will launch on Wednesday, September 11, at 12:23 p.m. ET (9:23 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The coverage will be streamed on NASA+, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content on a variety of platforms, including social media.

After a two-orbit, three-hour trajectory to the station, the spacecraft will automatically dock at 15:33 with the orbiting laboratory’s Rassvet module. Shortly thereafter, the hatches between the spacecraft and the station will open.

Once on board, the trio will join NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin and Oleg Kononenko.

NASA coverage is shown below (all times are Eastern Time; subject to change based on ongoing activities):

11:15 a.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

12:23 – Start

14:30 – Coverage of the encounter and docking begins on NASA+, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

15:33 – Docking

17:30 – Coverage of the hatch opening and welcome speech begins on NASA+ platforms, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

17:50 – Opening the hatch

The trio will spend about six months aboard the orbiting laboratory as crew members of Expeditions 71 and 72 before returning to Earth in the spring of 2025. This will be the fourth spaceflight for Pettit and Ovchinin and the second for Vagner.

For more than two decades, humans have continuously lived and worked aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and achieving research breakthroughs that are not possible on Earth. The station is a key testing ground for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-term spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low-Earth orbit. While commercial companies are focused on providing space transportation services to people and destinations as part of a robust low-Earth orbit economy, NASA is focusing more resources on deep-space missions to the Moon as part of Artemis in preparation for future human missions to Mars.

Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

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Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
[email protected] / claire.a.o’[email protected]

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
[email protected]