Soyuz MS-17 was a

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз ( Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис ...

spaceflight that was launched on 14 October 2020. It transported three crew members of the

Expedition 63 Expedition 63 was the 63rd long duration mission to the International Space Station, which began on 17 April 2020 with the undocking of the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft and continued until the undocking of the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft on 21 October 20 ...

/ 64 crew to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

. Soyuz MS-17 was the 145th crewed flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian commander and a Russian and American flight engineer. The mission marked the first use of a new "ultrafast" two-orbit rendezvous flight plan with the Soyuz, which saw Soyuz MS-17 arrive at the ISS within approximately three hours after the launch. On 19 March 2021, the crew of Soyuz MS-17 boarded their spacecraft to relocate it from ''Rassvet'' to ''Poisk'' to make way for the arrival and docking of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, which launched on 9 April 2021 carrying cosmonauts

Oleg Novitsky Oleg Viktorovich Novitskiy (russian: Олег Викторович Новицкий; born October 12, 1971) is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Air Force who logged over 700 hours of flight time and was awarded for bravery. He is curr ...

Pyotr Dubrov Pyotr Valerievich Dubrov ( rus, Пётр Валерьевич Дубров; born 30 January 1978) is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut selected by Roscosmos in 2012. Early life and education Dubrov was born on 30 January 1978 in Khabarovsk, Rus ...

and the astronaut of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

, Mark T. Vande Hei to the ISS ahead of a six-month stay. The two spacecraft had a nine-day handover period before Soyuz MS-17 departed. This is necessary to avoid de-crewing the

Russian Orbital Segment The Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is the name given to the components of the International Space Station (ISS) constructed in Russia and operated by the Russian Roscosmos. The ROS handles Guidance, Navigation, and Control for the entire Station ...

(ROS) of the ISS since no Russian cosmonaut was present aboard

SpaceX Crew-1 SpaceX Crew-1 (was also known as USCV-1 or simply Crew-1) was the first operational crewed flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the maiden flight of the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' spacecraft. It was also the second crewed orbital flight l ...

Crew

Backup crew

Reserve crew

Crew notes

Early planning had listed Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Chub as the mission's Flight Engineer 2, pending a

decision on whether they would purchase more seats on the Soyuz. In May 2020, NASA purchased a Soyuz seat and assigned NASA astronaut

Kathleen Rubins Kathleen Hallisey Rubins (born October 14, 1978) is an American microbiologist and NASA astronaut. She became the 60th woman to fly in space when she launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 7, 2016 ...

to the Flight Engineer 2 position, backed up by astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei. Originally Russian cosmonauts

Anatoli Ivanishin Anatoli Alekseyevich Ivanishin (russian: link=no, Анатолий Алексеевич Иванишин; born 15 January 1969) is a former Russian cosmonaut. His first visit to space was to the International Space Station on board the Soyuz TM ...

and

Ivan Vagner Ivan Viktorovich Vagner (born 10 July 1985) is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut who was selected in October 2010. He graduated from the Baltic State Technical University in 2008, before working as an engineer for RKK Energia. He began his first ...

were set to fly as Commander and Flight Engineer 1 respectively. In February 2020, however, the two cosmonauts were moved to the Soyuz MS-16 flight due to medical issues with the commander of Soyuz MS-16,

Nikolai Tikhonov Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov (russian: Николай Александрович Тихонов; ukr, Микола Олександрович Тихонов; – 1 June 1997) was a Soviet Russian-Ukrainian statesman during the Cold War. H ...

. Ivanishin and Vagner were replaced by Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov. Babkin remains an active cosmonaut, but has not yet been to space, while Tikhonov has retired from

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

' astronaut corps. Reacting to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

implemented a two-cosmonaut reserve crew to ensure the flight could go on with no delays, in the unlikely event both the prime and backup crews fall ill. It was not confirmed whether NASA planned to add an astronaut of their own to the reserve crew.

Gallery

Expedition 64 Preflight (NHQ202010140001).jpg Expedition 64 Launch (NHQ202010140007).jpg

References

External links

Launch «Souz МS-17» (Youtube)
{{Orbital launches in 2020 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2020 2020 in Russia Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-2 rockets Spacecraft which reentered in 2021 Fully civilian crewed orbital spaceflights