Expedition 70 Crew Press Conference in Kazakhstan | International Space Station

Expedition 70 Crew Press Conference in Kazakhstan | International Space Station

Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, left, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (Russia), and Nikolai Chub (Russia), right, pose for a group photograph while in quarantine behind glass during a press conference, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023 at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. 

Expedition 70 astronaut Loral O'Hara is seen in quarantine behind glass during a press conference.

Expedition 70 NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, left, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (Russia), and Nikolai Chub (Russia), right.

Expedition 70 cosmonaut & Soyuz commander Oleg Kononenko (Russia)

Expedition 70 cosmonaut Nikolai Chub (Russia)

Expedition 70 prime crew NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, left, and backup crew member NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson pose for a photograph

A NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts (Russia) are set to launch to the International Space Station on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub of Russia are scheduled to lift off on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:44 a.m. EDT (8:44 p.m. Baikonur time). O’Hara, who will begin a six-month mission aboard the station, and Kononenko and Chub, who will both spend a year on the orbital outpost, will fly on a quick two-orbit, three-hour trajectory that will result in a docking to the station’s Rassvet module at 2:56 p.m. A short time later, hatches between the station and the Soyuz will open and the crew will be welcomed aboard.

Expedition 69 Commander Sergey Prokopyev (Russia) and flight engineer Dmitri Petelin (Russia) will be on duty Friday to monitor the arrival of the new Soyuz. After the new crew docks and after leak and pressure checks, Prokopyev will open the station’s Rassvet hatch while Kononenko and Chub will open the Soyuz hatch. The new trio will enter the orbital outpost, join the station crew for a welcoming ceremony, participate in a safety briefing, and begin a six-month space research mission.

Prokopyev and Petelin continued preparing for the arrival of the new trio by setting up crew quarters for the new cosmonauts inside the orbital lab’s Roscosmos segment on Thursday. NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio will configure O’Hara’s new crew quarters in the Columbus laboratory module on Friday before she arrives.

Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio are also preparing for their return to Earth inside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on Sept. 27. When Rubio lands with his Soyuz crewmates, he will have the record for the longest single spaceflight by a NASA astronaut at 371 days, surpassing astronaut Mark Vande Hei’s record of 355 days.

Astronaut Loral O’Hara Official NASA Biography:

https://www.nasa.gov/content/loral-o-hara-nasa-astronaut

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center/Bill Ingalls

Capture Date: Sept. 12, 2023

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