posted 07-12-2026 01:41 PM               

Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft, crew poised for launch

Soyuz MS-29 commander Pyotr Dubrov and flight engineer Anna Kikina, both of Roscosmos, together with flight engineer Anil Menon of NASA are set to launch to the International Space Station at 10:47 a.m. EDT (1447 GMT or 7:47 p.m. Kazakhstan local) on Tuesday (July 14) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

They will dock the Soyuz to the station's Prichal module at approximately 1:56 p.m. EDT (1756 GMT), after a two-orbit, three-hour rendezvous.

About two hours later, the hatches between the Soyuz and station will open and Dubrov, Kikina and Menon will be greeted by Expedition 74 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineers Sergey Mikayev and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos; NASA astronauts Chris Williams, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway; and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency).

Dubrov, Kikina and Menon will stay on the station through April 2027.

On Saturday (July 11), the Soyuz-2.1a rocket was transported to the pad by train and erected into position.

posted 07-14-2026 10:02 AM               

Ex-SpaceX flight doc, two cosmonauts launch on Soyuz MS-29 to ISS

The first former SpaceX employee to fly into space as a NASA astronaut lifted off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Tuesday (July 14), flying with two cosmonauts, including the first to have flown on a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

Anil Menon, who previously supported human spaceflights as a flight surgeon for the U.S. Air Force, NASA and then SpaceX, launched with Soyuz MS-29 commander Pyotr Dubrov and flight engineer Anna Kikina, the first Russian to fly on a U.S. commercial crew spacecraft.