[NASA] NASA Astronaut Don Pettit, Crewmates Arrive at Space Station

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The Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 72 crew members: NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner, onboard, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA astronaut

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, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, arrived at the International Space Station Wednesday, bringing its number of residents to 12 for the 13-day handover *******.

After a two-orbit, three-hour journey to the station, the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft automatically docked to the orbiting laboratory’s Rassvet module at 3:32 p.m. EDT. The spacecraft launched at 12:23 p.m. EDT (9:23 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

NASA’s coverage of hatch opening will stream at 5:30 p.m. on

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, the

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, and the agency’s

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. Hatch opening is scheduled to begin at 5:50 p.m. Learn how to

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through a variety of platforms, including social media.

Once aboard, the trio will join

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crew members, including NASA astronauts Tracy C. Dyson, Mike Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin, and Oleg Kononenko. Expedition 72 will begin Monday, Sept. 23, upon the departure of Dyson, Chub, and off-going station commander Kononenko, completing a six-month stay for Dyson and a year-long expedition for Chub and Kononenko.

Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner will spend approximately six months aboard the orbital outpost advancing scientific research as Expedition 71/72 crew members before returning to Earth in the spring of 2025. This is Pettit and Ovchinin’s fourth spaceflight and Vagner’s second.

During Expedition 72, two new crews will arrive aboard the space station, including NASA’s SpaceX

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launching in September, followed by

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, scheduled for launch in February 2025.  

Follow Pettit on

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throughout his mission and get the latest space station crew news on

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,

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, and

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.

Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:

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-end-

Joshua Finch / Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
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Leah Cheshier
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
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