An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts lifted off Tuesday from Kazakhstan, heading to the International Space Station in a mission that brought together the top officials from both NASA and Russia’s space agency in a rare joint appearance.
Astronaut Anil Menon, along with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, departed from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft at 10:47 a.m. Eastern time. The journey to the ISS took approximately three hours.
The trio will serve as the station’s 75th rotation crew, with a stay expected to last around eight months. The mission also marked the return of crewed launches from a launchpad that had recently undergone repairs.
