by While the commercial Polaris Dawn While the crew prepared for the first non-governmental spacewalk, a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts launched on Wednesday for a more traditional space flight, flying to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz Ferry ship for a six-month service.
Space station veteran Donald Pettit, at 69 NASA’s oldest active astronaut, Soyuz MS-26/72S commander Alexei Ovchinin and cosmonaut Ivan Wagner launched at 21:23 local time aboard a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The ascent into orbit went smoothly and nine minutes after launch the Soyuz was cleared for independent flight.
The launch brought the total number of people in orbit at one time to a record 19. The people flew in four different spacecraft: nine aboard the space station, four aboard the Polaris Dawn Crew Dragon, three aboard the Chinese space station and three aboard the Soyuz.
It is Pettit’s fourth spaceflight since his first visit to the station in 2002-03 and his first launch in 12 years.
The “most profound” change he has noticed since his last flight is the “number of people currently flying in space, which is partly thanks to our international partners, partly to the commercial providers we now have, and then to the private astronauts,” he said in an interview before the launch.
“I think space is an exciting place right now,” he added. “It’s starting to open up like the Wild West, and I think we’re going to see an incredible increase in the number of people living and working in an orbital environment.”
The privately financed Polaris Dawn flightchartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman, launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday and has already set a new altitude record for a manned spacecraft after Apollo.
Overnight, Isaacman and his crewmate Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX crew trainer, plan to conduct the first non-governmental spacewalk, the first commercial foray of its kind into the void of space in the more than 470 government-sponsored spacewalks to date.
The Soyuz launch was scheduled to allow for a two-orbit, three-hour rendezvous with the International Space Station and docking with the Earth-facing Rassvet module at 3:33 p.m. local time.
Ready to welcome the new crew on board are the Soyuz crew that will replace them, consisting of Commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, as well as the NASA Crew 8 pilots – Commander Matthew Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
Also on board: Starliner commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams, who have now been on an unexpected eight-and-a-half-month stay for more than three months.
Originally, a short eight-day visit to the station was planned during a test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. However, helium leaks and problems with the engines prompted NASA to cancel the Starliner back to earth early Saturday without a crew. Wilmore and Williams will now return home in February aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon shuttle.
When a reporter asked what he was most looking forward to after arriving at the space station, Pettit answered, always matter-of-factly and with a dry expression.
“After the hatches are opened and we all hug our crew members to congratulate them, I’ll probably go straight to the bathroom,” he said. “Then it’s off to the (multi-windowed) cupola.”
Kononenko and Chub were together with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara launched on September 15, 2023 on board another SoyuzO’Hara spent six months on board the station and returned to Earth last April with two other cosmonautsand left Kononenko and Chub on the station to complete a year-long mission.
Dyson flew to the station in March to relieve O’Hara and will join Kononenko and Chub aboard the same spacecraft when they return to Earth on Sept. 23. Upon landing, Kononenko will have spent 1,111 days in orbit during his five missions, setting a new record for the longest cumulative time in space.
Pettit, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering, has completed three flights and spent a total of 370 days in space. He last flew aboard the space station in 2011-2012 and became a popular figure with his impromptu “Saturday morning science experiments,” in which he used MacGyver-like ingenuity to demonstrate unusual aspects of weightlessness.
One of his most famous demonstrations was a collapsible, open-topped plastic container he invented for drinking coffee in zero gravity. His improvised “cup” relied on a special shape and surface tension to keep the coffee in the container while directing the liquid to the edge for drinking.
“This could very well be what future space colonists will use when they want to celebrate and have a toast. They can drink their coffee and tea from cups like we do down here on Earth, without having to suck them out of a bag,” he said on NASA TV 15 years ago. The YouTube video has been viewed 3 million times.
In the 12 years since his last flight, Pettit has mentored younger astronauts and helped plan NASA’s Artemis moon program, but he never lost his desire to fly aboard the space station again.
“I miss being in space every day,” he said in an interview before the launch. “I feel like a cowboy who should be sitting on the horse in the pasture, but instead I’m flying a desk. It’s nice to be back on the horse and going back to the pasture.”
Pettit’s career focuses on space station exploration, but he is also an accomplished amateur astronomer and photographer who is excited to work with new lenses that will enable high-resolution nighttime images of Earth, cities, and other particularly fascinating destinations.
“One of my specialties is night photography,” he said. “The Earth at night is very special to me. I’m an amateur astronomer and … it’s not just about looking at the Earth, but the Earth, the horizon, the atmosphere at the edge and all the natural phenomena that arise from the orbital perspective.”
“And I’m really excited about improving night imaging. I actually talked NASA into putting in a set of new lenses optimized for night imaging, and they just arrived on the station. So I’m excited about putting in those lenses optimized for night imaging.”
The arrival of Pettit, Ovchinin and Vagner is the first step in a carefully orchestrated series of launches and landings conducted twice a year to swap out the space station’s seven long-term crew members.
Kononenko, Chub and Dyson will undock and return to Earth on September 23. The next day, NASA and SpaceX plan to launch another Crew Dragon carrying astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov to the station.
The Crew Dragon normally carries four long-term station pilots, but NASA has transported two astronauts – Stephanie Wilson and Zena Cardman – from the Crew 9 mission to free up seats for Wilmore and Williams when they return to Earth with Hague and Gorbunov in late February.
In the meantime, Hague, Wilmore, Williams and Gorbunov will replace Dominick, Barratt, Epps and Grebenkin, who plan to return to Earth around October 1.
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