Soyuz MS-28 Arrives at ISS – SpacePolicyOnline.com

Soyuz MS-28 arrived on the International Space Station this morning with its crew of two Russian cosmonauts and NASA’s Chris Williams.  Unlike most Russian crew rotations, they’re scheduled to remain for eight months as a substitute of six as Russia reduces its cadence of Soyuz launches. NASA equally is contemplating whether or not to increase mission durations to scale back the variety of launches as a price saving measure.

Today’s launch was on time at 4:27 am ET from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Williams and his Russian crewmates, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev, docked on the ISS simply over three hours later at 7:34 am EST.

They are becoming a member of NASA’s Crew-11 — Zena Cardman (NASA), Mike Fincke (NASA), Kimiya Yui (JAXA), and Oleg Platonov (Roscosmos) — and changing the Soyuz MS-27 crew:  Roscosmos’s Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky and NASA’s Jonny Kim who arrived on April 8.  They’ll undock and return house on December 8.

As the ISS celebrates 25 years of everlasting occupancy, NASA and Roscosmos are on the lookout for methods to economize. Fewer launches are one measure although it means extending the length of every crew’s mission. Astronauts have stayed for for much longer than six months both by design or necessity — Frank Rubio holds the U.S. file at 371 days — with out undue well being results. Soyuz MS-28 is scheduled for eight months.  Although Crew-11 was launched on a nominal six-month mission, NASA mentioned it may be prolonged to eight months if they’ll full certification of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to stay docked for that time period. Right now it’s licensed for 210 days.

NASA’s ISS cash worries stem from constrained budgets since FY2024 and the necessity to construct a brand new U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) to deorbit the ISS into the Pacific Ocean on the finish of its lifetime in 2030. NASA awarded SpaceX a $843 million contract to construct a U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), however that doesn’t embody launch. NASA estimates the overall value at about $1.5 billion.  Congress has not elevated the ISS finances commensurately.

Beyond 2030, NASA desires to be simply one among many purchasers of economic area stations and anticipates at the very least one business area station will likely be out there by then.

Last Updated: Nov 28, 2025 12:06 am ET