Contents

Soyuz MS-17

Favor launches atop a Soyuz-2.1a

ISS 63S

Crewed mission to ISS

Roscosmos

2020-072A

46613

184 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes

Soyuz MS No.747 Favor ^[1]

RSC Energia

14 October 2020, 05:45:04 UTC^[2][3][4][5]

Soyuz-2.1a (s/n Х15000-045)

Baikonur, Site 31

RSC Progress

17 April 2021, 04:55 UTC^[6]

Kazakh Steppe, Kazakhstan

Geocentric orbit

Low Earth orbit

51.66°

Rassvet nadir

14 October 2020, 08:48:47 UTC ^[7][8]

19 March 2021, 16:38:27 UTC ^[9][10]

156 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes

Poisk zenith

19 March 2021, 17:12:35 UTC ^[10]

17 April 2021, 01:34 UTC ^[6]

28 days, 8 hours and 21 minutes

Rubins, Ryzhikov, and Kud-Sverchkov

Soyuz programme (crewed)

← Soyuz MS-16

Soyuz MS-18 →

Soyuz MS-17 was a Soyuz spaceflight that was launched on 14 October 2020.^[4][11] It transported three crew members of the Expedition 63/64 crew to the International Space Station. 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.^[12][13][14]

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.^{[3][15][16][8]}

On 19 March 2021, the crew of Soyuz MS-17 boarded their spacecraft to relocate it from RassvettoPoisk to make way for the arrival and docking of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft,^[9] which launched on 9 April 2021 carrying cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut, 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 (ROS) of the ISS since no Russian cosmonaut was present aboard SpaceX Crew-1.^[11]

Crew[edit]

Sergey Ryzhikov, Roscosmos
Expedition 63/64
Second spaceflight

Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Roscosmos
Expedition 63/64
First spaceflight

Kathleen Rubins, NASA
Expedition 63/64
Second spaceflight

^[17][18][19]

Backup crew[edit]

Oleg Novitsky, Roscosmos

Pyotr Dubrov, Roscosmos

Mark T. Vande Hei, NASA

Reserve crew[edit]

Anton Shkaplerov, Roscosmos

Andrei Babkin, Roscosmos

Crew notes[edit]

Early planning had listed Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Chub as the mission's Flight Engineer 2, pending a NASA 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 to the Flight Engineer 2 position, backed up by astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei.^[17][20]

Originally Russian cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner 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. 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' astronaut corps.

Reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic, Roscosmos 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.^[21]

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

^ ^{a b} "NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins, Crewmates to Discuss Upcoming Spaceflight" (Press release). NASA. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

^ "NASA Assigns Astronaut Kate Rubins to Expedition 63/64 Space Station Crew". M20-060 (Press release). NASA. 3 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

External links[edit]

• Launch «Souz МS-17» (Youtube)

2021 →