![Soyuz MS-24 launches Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara. Credit: Roscosmos](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/F6E91hwWAAAGbv9.jpg)
Soyuz MS-24 launches Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. Credit: Roscosmos
Russia has launched its first crewed flight in nearly a 12 months with the flight of Soyuz MS-24 with two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut for a multi-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
Liftoff atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket occurred at 11:44 a.m. EDT (15:44 UTC) Sept. 15, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara reached orbit lower than 10 minutes later to start a two-orbit rendezvous profile to the ISS.
![The Soyuz MS-24 crew. From left to right: NASA's Loral O'Hara and Roscosmos' Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1636px-Soyuz_MS-24_Crew.jpg)
The Soyuz MS-24 crew. From left to right: NASA’s Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos’ Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. Credit: NASA
Once on the space station, docking occurred on the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module 2:53 p.m. EDT (18:53 UTC). The trio joined the seven-person Expedition 69 crew already aboard the outpost around two hours later at 5:16 p.m. EDT (21:16 UTC) after leak checks and hatch opening.
Kononenko, Chub and O’Hara were originally slated to launch in March in Soyuz MS-23 to exchange the Soyuz MS-22 crew: NASA’s Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin, who launched to space for his or her mission on Sept. 21, 2022.
Nonetheless, in December 2022, Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio faced an unexpected challenge when a possible micrometeoroid punctured the external coolant loop of their Soyuz spacecraft, causing all of the coolant to leak out. This prevented the spacecraft from sufficiently cooling the inside and would have made a return in that vehicle uncomfortably hot for the trio.
As such, Roscosmos made the choice to fly Soyuz MS-23 to the ISS and not using a crew to act as a substitute for Soyuz MS-22, which might land without its crew.
This meant that Kononenko, Chub and O’Hara were bumped to Soyuz MS-24 and its September 2023 launch slot. It also meant that Prokopyev, Petelin and Rubio would remain on the ISS for a further six months.
The truth is, the now Soyuz-MS-23 trio is predicted to land on Sept. 27, bringing their total mission time to 371 days — the longest single mission to the International Space Station, and the third longest in human history.
It also marks the longest single spaceflight for a NASA astronaut, Rubio, and the primary American to spend greater than one year in orbit.
Now that this nearly two-week handover period with the Soyuz MS-23 and Soyuz MS-24 crews is ongoing, the station population is temporarily at 10 people. The opposite 4 are a part of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission, which launched in Crew Dragon Endurance in late August. They’re NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov.
![Soyuz MS-24 approaches the International Space Station. Credit: NASA](https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/blog_soyuzms24_approach.jpg)
Soyuz MS-24 approaches the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
All are a part of the last phase of Expedition 69, which is able to transition to Expedition 70 upon the departure of Soyuz MS-23 on Sept. 27.
Of the three crew members of Soyuz MS-24, 39-year-old Chub and 40-year-old O’Hara are on their first trip into space. Kononenko, 59, is on his fifth spaceflight, the opposite 4 (all aboard the ISS) have totaled him just over 736 days between 2008 and 2018.
O’Hara is predicted to return to Earth in March 2024. Nonetheless, Chub and Kononenko are expected to stay on the ISS until September 2024 and return in Soyuz MS-25, which set to launch in March 2024 with two cosmonauts on a roughly 10-day stay (returning in Soyuz MS-24) and NASA’s Tracy Caldwell-Dyson for a six-month stay (returning with Chub and Kononenko.
With Kononenko’s fifth spaceflight expected to last around a 12 months, that might make him probably the most experienced spaceflyer. The present record holder for many cumulative time in space is retired Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka. His five missions between 1998 and 2015 totaled 878.5 days.
Kononenko is predicted to surpass that record by February 2024, be the primary person to cross 900 cumulative days in space by March and over 1,000 days by next summer.
If Soyuz MS-25 returns by its currently scheduled date of Sept. 24, his total can be greater than 1,100 days together with his fifth trip to the ISS lasting 374 days, which itself would break the record recently set by the Soyuz MS-23 crew.