Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying 3 spaceflyers arrives at ISS

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) today (Sept. 15), roughly three hours after lifting off.

That was just 3 hours and 9 minutes after Soyuz MS-24 lifted off from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan — a very quick trip to the ISS, but not quite a record-breaking one.

Russia's Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, carrying three spaceflyers, approaches the International Space Station on Sept. 15, 2023. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Soyuz MS-24 is carrying NASA's Loral O'Hara and Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, both of Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

About two hours later, the hatches between the Soyuz and the ISS opened, and the three spaceflyers floated aboard the orbiting lab.

— Leaky Soyuz spacecraft at space station returns to Earth in speedy landing

— NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara ready for Soyuz launch to relieve delayed crew in space

O'Hara, Kononenko and Chub are joining seven other spaceflyers on board the orbiting lab. The two cosmonauts have embarked on a year-long ISS mission, while O'Hara will come home in six months.

O'Hara and Chub are spaceflight rookies, but Kononenko is very experienced. The cosmonaut had already accrued 736 days in orbit across four different ISS missions before today's launch. During his yearlong stint, Kononenko will break the all-time record for most time in space, 878 days, held by fellow cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.

MS-24's arrival also sets the wheels in motion for an ISS departure. On Sept. 27, a Soyuz carrying cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA's Frank Rubio is scheduled to come back to Earth. Rubio will have spent 371 continuous days in space by that time, a record for an American astronaut.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 5:30 p.m. ET with news of the hatch opening between the Soyuz and the ISS.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.