Soyuz MS-21 was a Russian

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 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 ...

(ISS) with a crew of three launched from Baikonur on 18 March 2022. The launch was previously planned for 30 March 2022, but in the provisional flight manifest prepared by

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

by the end of Summer 2020, the launch of Soyuz MS-21 was advanced to 18 March 2022. It was the first mission to the ISS with three

cosmonauts. On 29 September 2022, after , the mission completed successfully as planned with a landing on the Kazakh Steppe in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Crew

The three-Russian member crew were named in May 2021. Although

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

had not decided whether or not they would purchase a seat on the flight, NASA astronaut

Loral O'Hara Loral Ashley O'Hara (born May 3, 1983) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut. Early life and education Loral Ashley O'Hara was born on May 3, 1983, in Houston, Texas, to Cindy and Steve O'Hara. She grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, where she ...

was preparing to replace

Sergey Korsakov Sergey Korsakov may refer to: * Sergei Korsakoff (1854–1900), Russian neuropsychiatrist * Sergey Korsakov (cosmonaut) Sergey Vladimirovich Korsakov (Russian Cyrillic: Сергей Владимирович Корсаков; born 1 September 1 ...

if the agency decided to buy a seat. Later, NASA decided not to acquire a seat on the Soyuz MS-21 launching in March 2022, deferring a NASA Roscosmos seat swap for

Soyuz MS-22 Soyuz MS-22 is a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station with a crew of three launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 21 September 2022. The launch was previously planned for 13 September 2022, but in the provisional flight ma ...

and

SpaceX Crew-5 SpaceX Crew-5 is the fifth crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the eighth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission launched on 5 October 2022 and transported four crew members to the Internat ...

Backup crew

Arrival suits

The arriving cosmonauts at the station have gained particular international attention after entering in bright yellow suits with blue elements, having changed before and after into different suits. International commentators saw in these colours the national colours of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and interpreted the personal choice of suits by the cosmonauts as a sign of their sympathy for Ukraine in the light of the parallel ongoing

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, which strained also space cooperation such as the ISS program after international sanctions on Russia. The cosmonauts said when asked about the colours that the yellow suits needed to be used, and Roscosmos followed with a statement that the colours are to be read as the identifying colours of the

Bauman Moscow State Technical University The Bauman Moscow State Technical University, BMSTU (russian: link=no, Московский государственный технический университет им. Н. Э. Баумана (МГТУ им. Н. Э. Баумана)), some ...

, from which all three cosmonauts graduated.

References

{{Orbital launches in 2022 Crewed Soyuz missions Spacecraft launched in 2022 Spacecraft which reentered in 2022 2022 in Russia March 2022 events in Russia Fully civilian crewed orbital spaceflights Sergei Korolev