MOSCOW, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, carrying two Russians and one U.S. citizen, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said.
A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket launched the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft from Baikonur at 18:44 Moscow time (15:44 GMT). The spaceship is set to dock to the Russian segment of the ISS at 21:56 Moscow time (18:56 GMT), according to Roscosmos.
Two Roscosmos cosmonauts, Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara are onboard the spacecraft. The Russian cosmonauts are expected to return to Earth after one year, while O'Hara is scheduled to come back in March 2024.
Once they reach the ISS, the crew will join the members of Expedition 69, including commander Sergei Prokopyev of Roscosmos.
The spaceship will deliver around 120 kg of cargo to the ISS, including photo and video equipment, the astronauts' personal belongings, food and equipment for scientific experiments.
In the course of the 70th and 71st long-term expeditions, which will last a total of 375 days, the astronauts will perform four spacewalks within the framework of the Russian program, and will conduct scientific research. Four Progress MS cargo spaceships are expected to arrive at the ISS during this period. ■
