Soyuz rocket carrying first Belorussian woman in space en route to ISS

Two astronauts from Belarus and the U.S. have set off for the Worldwide Area Station along with a Russian cosmonaut, marking the primary time {that a} girl from Belarus is touring to space.

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft lifted off from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome within the steppes of Kazakhstan at 12:36 GMT.

A primary launch try had been aborted 20 seconds earlier than takeoff on Thursday on account of technical problems.

Saturday’s launch noticed Belorussian astronaut Marina Vasilevskaya, who’s being accompanied by NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, changing into the primary girl from her nation to make it into space.

Area cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, together with Moscow’s ally Belarus, continues regardless of the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

The launch additionally noticed two girls aboard a Soyuz capsule flying to the ISS for the primary time.

That is Dyson’s third flight into space and Novitsky’s fourth.

Vasilevskaya works as a flight attendant for the Belorussian firm Belavia. Throughout her two-week keep on the ISS, she is going to perform scientific experiments and take spectral photos of the Earth’s floor.

In line with Russian space company Roskosmos, she is going to return to Earth with Novitsky and U.S. astronaut Loral O’Hara within the Soyuz MS-24 at the start of April.

Dyson will stay on the ISS till September and can then journey dwelling with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. Kononenko, 59, holds the document for the longest keep on the ISS. By the tip of his fifth present keep there, scheduled till Sept. 23, he may have spent greater than 1,000 days in space.

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