Soyuz MS-25 with Vasilevskaya aboard enters Earth orbit
The Soyuz MS-25 manned spacecraft with the spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus has successfully entered Earth orbit, BelTA learned from the Russian Mission Control Center.
“The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft has entered near-Earth orbit,” the Russian Mission Control Center said. The Roscosmos specialists present at the center, as well as relatives and friends of the cosmonauts applauded to the news.
The crew on board consists of Commander, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, Belarusian spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson.
It took the spacecraft about nine minutes to reach necessary acceleration after the launch. The spacecraft was put into orbit using the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle.
The next crucial part of the flight is docking with the International Space Station. Due to the aborted launch on 21 March and its postponement to 23 March, the crew will be forced to wait for docking for a little more than two days: it is no longer possible to dock according to the ultra-short two-orbit scheme.
The docking of the manned spacecraft is scheduled for 25 March at 18.10 Minsk time. During this time, Soyuz MS-25 will circle the Earth 34 times. The two spacecraft are scheduled to link together using Russia's Prichal.
The flight will last 14 days: due to a change in the launch date and the docking scheme, it has been extended by two days.
The return of Oleg Novitsky, Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, who has been on the ISS for a long time, is scheduled on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on 6 April.