On April 9, 2021 at 07:42 UTC the Russian “Soyuz MS-18” spacecraft was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The space vehicle was orbited by the Russian “Soyuz-2.1a” rocket-carrier. The spacecraft is piloted by 3 cosmonauts: Commander, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novickiy (center), Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov (right) and American astronaut Mark Vande Hei (left).

Photo by Russian Cosmonaut training center.

The launch was performed from Launch Site 31 (Baykonur Cosmodrome Site 31). The “Soyuz MS-18” space vehicle is to dock with the International Space Station in about 3 hours after the launch. Oleg Novickiy, Pyotr Dubrov, Mark Vande Hei will join current ISS expedition members Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Kathleen Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi.