posted 08-21-2024 08:50 PM               

This thread is intended for comments and questions about the Soyuz MS-28 mission to the International Space Station.

posted 08-21-2024 08:52 PM               

ISS-74: Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikayev and Oleg Platonov. Launch on Soyuz MS-28.

posted 12-30-2024 08:51 AM               

Beginning with 2025, the flight duration of Soyuz MS spacecraft is set to be increased from six to seven-nine months, which will help economize on a spaceship every two years.

The agreement will additionally stipulate two flights by NASA astronauts aboard the Soyuz MS-28 and Soyuz MS-29 spaceships in 2025 and 2026, correspondingly, and three flights by Roscosmos cosmonauts on board Crew Dragon spacecraft (another additional flight in 2025, one flight in 2026 and one flight in 2027).

posted 04-03-2025 01:01 PM               

NASA Astronaut Chris Williams Assigned to First Space Station Mission

NASA astronaut Chris Williams will embark on his first mission to the International Space Station, serving as a flight engineer and Expedition 74 crew member.

Williams will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft in November, accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. After launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the trio will spend approximately eight months aboard the orbiting laboratory.

During his expedition, Williams will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations that help prepare humans for future space missions and benefit humanity.

Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, Williams graduated with the 23rd astronaut class in 2024. He began training for his first space station flight assignment immediately after completing initial astronaut candidate training.

Williams was born in New York City, and considers Potomac, Maryland, his hometown. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Stanford University in California and a doctorate in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, where his research focused on astrophysics. Williams completed Medical Physics Residency training at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He was working as a clinical physicist and researcher at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston when he was selected as an astronaut.

posted 10-30-2025 11:08 AM               

The mission was originally supposed to use Soyuz-MS vehicle No. 759, which was the next on the assembly line at RKK Energia's ZEM factory in Korolev, near Moscow.

However, during routine post-production tests at ZEM's Checkout and Test Facility, KIS, Vehicle No. 759 reportedly suffered major damage to its thermal protection system, which could not be repaired in time for the Expedition 74 launch at the end of 2025. According to one source, quoting an officer within the military certification service, Voennaya Priemka, which traditionally oversees quality control in the Russian rocket and space industry, the ship's main thermal control heat shield, attached to the base of the Descent Module, SA, was accidentally jettisoned, perhaps by a stray signal triggering the pyrotechnic bolts, connecting the Frisbee-shaped structure to the capsule. According to another source, the thermal layers of the shield peeled off, as a result of botched thermal tests.

In any case, as of late October 2025, neither Roskosmos nor the official media had confirmed the fact of an incident, but the photos of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft undergoing processing in Baikonur, which accompanied press-releases about the launch campaign, showed No. 753 on the flight-worthy ship.

That particular Soyuz-MS, along with Vehicle No. 752, was initially reserved for "tourist" missions...

posted 11-20-2025 05:05 PM               

• Thursday, Nov. 27
  
  3:30 a.m. EST – NASA launch coverage begins.
  
  4:27 a.m. EST (0927 GMT) – Launch
  
  6:45 a.m. EST – NASA rendezvous and docking coverage begins.
  
  7:38 a.m. EST (1238 GMT) – Docking to the space station
  
  9:50 a.m. EST – Hatch opening and welcome remarks coverage.
  
  10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT) – Hatch opening

posted 11-27-2025 12:00 AM               

Liftoff is scheduled for 4:27 a.m. EST (0927 UTC) on Thursday (Nov. 27), and the spacecraft and crew are scheduled to dock at the station at about 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 UTC) on the same day.

posted 11-27-2025 05:39 AM               

The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft and crew are scheduled to dock at the station at about 7:38 a.m. EST (1238 UTC) on Thursday (Nov. 27).

posted 11-27-2025 07:57 AM               

The Soyuz MS-28 crew is scheduled to open their spacecraft's hatch around 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 UTC) on Thursday (Nov. 27).

posted 11-27-2025 01:39 PM               

According to multiple Russian sources, on Nov. 27, 2025, the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 crew vehicle caused the mobile service tower at Site 31 to collapse into the flame duct meters below. It essentially rendered the only facility for Russian orbital crew launches unusable. At the time, Roskosmos planned the launch of the Progress MS-33 cargo ship to the ISS on Dec. 21, 2025.

According to preliminary estimates, repairs of the service platform, known as 8U0216, could take up to two years and it is unclear whether some kind of makeshift arrangement would be possible to support multiple cargo and crew launches to the ISS in the interim. There is some possibility that duplicate hardware could be borrowed from the mothballed Site 1 in Baikonur or from similar facilities at other launch sites.

posted 11-28-2025 11:22 AM               

The launch pad was inspected, as is done every time a rocket is launched. Damage to several launch pad components was identified.

Damage can occur after launch, so such an inspection is mandatory worldwide. The condition of the launch pad is currently being assessed.

All necessary spare components are available for repair, and the damage will be repaired shortly.

posted 11-30-2025 12:14 PM               

New photos of the damaged launch pad at Site 31 of Baikonur Kosmodrome were published in Telegram channels and on Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum. Sad to see it like this.

Her opinion on if it will take upwards of two years to repair:

I don't believe it will take so long, my opinion is 3-6 months. Of course, there could be another damage inside cabin's room, but the metal construction itself can be taken from another Soyuz launch pad, there are three of them on Plesetsk, one on Baikonur and one at French Guiana.

On moving to Vostochny:

There is a problem with launches of Soyuz ships from Vostochny: the emergency landing areas will be over the ocean, which isn't great for Soyuz ships.