NASA astronaut, crewmates reach ISS for science expedition

Washington: NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and two cosmonauts safely arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), bringing its number of residents to 10 for the coming week.

The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft carrying O’Hara, as well as Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub of Roscosmos, docked to the station’s Rassvet module early Saturday morning.

The 10-person Expedition 69 crew is now aboard the space station. Front row from left are, Roscosmos cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov, Nikolai Chub, and Oleg Kononenko, and NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara. In the back are, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa. Credit: NASA TV

O’Hara, who is beginning a six-month stay aboard the orbital outpost, and Kononenko and Chub, who will both spend a year on the orbital outpost will work on science and research in technology development, Earth science, biology, and human research for the benefit of all.

This marks the first spaceflight for O’Hara, the fifth for Kononenko, and the first for Chub, NASA said in a statement.

Expedition 70 will begin on September 27, following the departure of record-breaking NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, and Dmitri Petelin.

Rubio recently broke the record for longest single spaceflight by an American.

Following a yearlong stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, the trio will land in Kazakhstan on September 27, at which point Rubio will have spent a total of 371 days in space — the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut.

Late last month, an international crew of four, representing four countries, reached the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, for a science expedition aboard the orbital laboratory.