US-Russian Soyuz mission launches to ISS from Baikonur

A joint US-Russian space mission has launched from Kazakhstan and is now in orbit on its way to the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft lifted off from the Russia-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday morning, carrying Russian astronauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina and NASA astronaut Anil Menon. The crew is scheduled to dock at the ISS later, where they are expected to stay for eight months.

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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended the launch, making what was described as a rare visit to Baikonur and the first by a NASA chief in eight years. Before liftoff, he met Dmitry Bakanov, the head of Roscosmos, Russia's state corporation for space activities. During a meeting with the crew on Monday, Isaacman thanked Roscosmos for its work preparing the mission and said the integrated effort over recent months reflected the professionalism and dedication of everyone involved.

The flight is Menon's first space mission and the second for Dubrov and Kikina. The trio will join a larger crew already aboard the station, including NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos astronauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev and Andrei Fedyaev. The launch adds to the station's long-running pattern of mixed crews from different space agencies working together in orbit.

The mission comes against a wider backdrop of continued cooperation between Washington and Moscow in space, even as relations have been strained since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. The two countries remain partners on the ISS and continue to fly crews to the orbiting laboratory on each other's spacecraft. At the same time, broader plans for cooperation, including possible Russian involvement in NASA's Artemis lunar research programme, have fallen apart.

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The launch also underlines how Roscosmos has been adjusting its international partnerships as Russia faces Western sanctions and deeper reliance on China for energy exports and key technology imports. According to the information provided, Roscosmos has begun cooperation with China on a prospective lunar mission. That makes the ISS one of the few remaining high-profile areas of direct US-Russian technical collaboration.

What remains unclear from the available details is the exact docking time and whether the mission will face any operational delays before reaching the station. The crew is expected to spend eight months aboard the ISS once they arrive. The launch is likely to be watched closely for what it signals about the durability of space cooperation between the two countries.

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