By BlueShift and AFP | 2025-04-10

A Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft carrying an American and two Russians docked at the International Space Station (ISS) April 8 after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA said.

The MS-27 craft, which was decorated to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, docked to the Russian segment of the orbital station after a journey of about three hours.

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky will spend approximately eight months aboard the ISS.

They join Expedition 72, including NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers, Anne McClain and Don Pettit; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi; and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, Kirill Peskov and Ivan Vagner.

They are due to carry out 50 scientific experiments in space before returning to Earth on December 9, Roscosmos said.

Kim will conduct scientific research in technology development, Earth science, biology, human research and more, NASA said in a statement. This was the first flight for Kim and Zubritsky, and the third for Ryzhikov.

Expedition 73 will begin April 19 following the departure of Pettit, Ovchinin and Vagner, as they conclude a seven-month science mission aboard the ISS, NASA said.

Russia has been renting the Baikonur Cosmodrome from Kazakhstan since the fall of the Soviet Union more than 33 years ago.

Moscow pays Almaty $115 million a year and has a contract until 2050.

Rare venue of cooperation

Space is one of the few areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States that survived after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

As part of the slew of sanctions imposed on Russia since its invasion, Western countries ceased partnerships with Roscosmos, but Soyuz remains one of the few spacecraft capable of reaching the ISS.

Russia's space program, which for decades has been a source of great pride for the country, has been suffering for years from a chronic lack of funding, corruption scandals and failures such as the Luna-25 probe in August 2023.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sacked the director of Roscosmos in February, citing the need to "develop" the corporation after several humiliating setbacks.

Yuri Borisov had filled that role since July 2022. He was replaced by Dmitry Bakanov, a 39-year-old deputy transport minister and former CEO of a satellite company, the Kremlin said.

In 2023, Borisov warned that most Russian equipment on the ISS was beyond its warranty and that the station as a whole was "approaching the finish line of its existence."

The Russian segment of the ISS has suffered three coolant leaks in just over two years, with Moscow signaling it aims to pull out of the project as early as 2028 and build its own orbital station.