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Frank Rubio, Sergei Prokopjew and Dmitri Petelin launch together to the ISS
Photo: DMITRY LOVETSKY / AFP
Despite severe tensions, the space nations Russia and the USA will again start a joint flight to the International Space Station ISS on Wednesday.
The two cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin as well as Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio are scheduled to take off on board a Soyuz rocket at 3:54 p.m. CEST from the Russian cosmodrome Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
The Russian space agency Roskosmos confirmed the start time and crew in Moscow in the evening.
The two cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin travel with Rubio in a Soyuz MS-22 space capsule in a three-hour flight to the outpost of mankind.
They are to spend six months there.
It is the first joint flight since the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The invasion is putting additional strain on already difficult relations between Moscow and Washington.
Russia complains that the sanctions imposed by the USA and the EU in the course of the war are making work in space more difficult, including the production of missiles that can also be used militarily.
It was an "incredibly important mission," NASA astronaut Frank Rubio said at a press conference a few weeks before launch.
He gets along very well with his two Russian crew colleagues.
"We have become good friends, you know my family, I know yours." Rubio described the cooperation between Nasa and Roskosmos as "good and strong" despite the strong differences caused by the war.
It is important "that human space travel and exploration remains a form of cooperation, diplomacy and collaboration where we can find common ground and achieve great things together".
Five exits into space
In view of the conflict with the West, Russia had recently announced that it would exit the ISS after 2024.
An exact date was not given.
The new Roskosmos boss Yuri Borissow said at the end of July: "The decision to exit this station after 2024 has been made." According to the German astronaut Matthias Maurer, Roskosmos has now given in.
"We have heard that they are still there," said Maurer of the German Press Agency.
"You won't get out," he said.
It's about reading between the lines with such Russian communications.
After all, Russia only completed its part of the ISS last year.
"Russia is only now in a position to conduct proper research there."
Before the start of the 68th ISS mission, cosmonaut Prokopyev said that five exits into space were planned and that 48 experiments were also planned, including working with a 3D printer in weightlessness.
The plan is therefore to print different figures out of different materials.
This may lead to a new generation of 3D printers in the future.
dam/dpa