Soyuz MS-29 set to launch new crew to ISS from Russia

Date:
Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:49:14 +0000

Description:
The next crew launch to the International Space Station is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, The post Soyuz MS-29 set to launch new crew to ISS from Russia appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

FULL STORY ======================================================================

The next crew launch to the International Space Station is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14, at 14:47 UTC from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft, carrying a crew of three, will launch atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket and follow a northeastern trajectory into a
low-Earth orbit.

Soyuz MS-29 is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 17:56 UTC after spending
just three hours in orbit, compared with other profiles that require six or even 48 hours to reach the Station. This ability to rendezvous and dock with the ISS in three hours is not available for every launch opportunity.



The mission is commanded by Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos, with his agency colleague Anna Kikina and NASAs Anil Menon as crewmates. Dubrov and Kikina
are making their second trip to ISS while Menon, the husband of Polaris Dawn crewmember and astronaut candidate Anna Menon, is making his first flight
into space. Soyuz MS-29 crew L to R: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, mission commander Pyotr Dubrov, and flight engineer Anna Kikina. (Credit: GCTC)

About two hours after Soyuz MS-29 docks with the Russian segments Prichal module, the spacecrafts hatch will be opened. The crew will participate in a handover period over the next 12 days with the Soyuz MS-28 crew before that spacecraft leaves the Station.

Soyuz MS-28 commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Roscosmos flight engineer Sergey Mikayev, and NASAs Chris Williams will undock from the Rassvet module on July 26. Prior to undocking, outgoing ISS commander Kud-Sverchkov will pass the torch to Jessica Meir, who will serve as Station commander until just before Crew-12 departs the Station.

After Soyuz MS-28 undocks, Expedition 74 will officially end, and Expedition 75 will begin. The spacecraft will return to Earth within a few hours of undocking, with a landing in the Kazakh steppe after eight months in orbit. The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft during pre-flight processing. (Credit: RKK
Energia)

Soyuz MS-29s prime crew of Dubrov, Kikina, and Menon originally trained as
the backup crew for Soyuz MS-28. Typically, a given Soyuz ISS flights backup crew becomes the prime crew for the next flight, though there have been exceptions. MS-29s backup crew consists of Dmitry Petelin and Konstantin Borisov from Roscosmos, as well as NASA astronaut Deniz Burnham, and they are expected to become the Soyuz MS-30 prime crew.

NASA and Roscosmos have flown at least one of their astronauts or cosmonauts aboard the other agencys crewed spacecraft to ensure redundant access to the Station if an issue were to ground either spacecraft for a period. The barter agreement between NASA and Roscosmos has been extended to at least 2027, and each Soyuz mission now lasts eight months instead of six due to Roscosmoss budget constraints.

Soyuz MS-29 commander Pyotr Dubrov, born on Jan. 30, 1978, in the Soviet now Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk, earned a degree in Software for
Computer Engineering and Automated Systems from Khabarovsk State Technical University before becoming a Roscosmos cosmonaut in 2012.



Soyuz MS-18, launched on April 9, 2021, was Dubrovs first spaceflight. He served as a flight engineer on the mission, commanded by Oleg Novitsky. Novitsky, Dubrov, and NASAs Mark Vande Hei docked with ISS and became part of the Expedition 64 and 65 crews, and Dubrov conducted four spacewalks from the Russian segment during his time in orbit.

See Also Soyuz MS-29 Updates Expedition 73 Updates NSF Store Click Here to Join L2

Dubrov and Vande Hei also became part of the Expedition 66 crew, returning to Earth after spending over 355 days in space aboard Soyuz MS-19 on March 30, 2022. Novitsky returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-18, along with movie
director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild, who had launched to the Station on Soyuz MS-19 with commander Anton Shkaplerov.

Soyuz MS-29 flight engineer Anna Kikina was born on Aug. 27, 1984, in Novosibirsk, which was then in the Soviet Union and is now the administrative center of Russias Siberian Federal District. Kikina, currently the only
female member of Roscosmos astronaut corps, is an engineer and a graduate of Novosibirsk State Academy of Water Transportation Engineering.

Like Pyotr Dubrov, Kikina became a Roscosmos astronaut in 2012. Kikina flew
to the ISS as a Roscosmos crew member aboard the SpaceX Crew-5 mission. Soyuz MS-29 will be Kikinas first flight on a Soyuz spacecraft. Dr. Anil Menon,
then a USAF Major, working at Mission Control in Houston in 2014. (Credit: Maj. Anil Menon/USAF/173rd FW Oregon ANG)

Crew-5, commanded by NASAs Nicole Mann, launched to the Station on Oct. 5, 2022 aboard the Crew Dragon Endurance . Mann, Kikina, NASAs Josh Cassada, and Japans Koichi Wakata became members of the Expedition 68 crew, and spent over 157 days in orbit before splashing down on March 12, 2023, off the coast of Clearwater, Florida.

Kikina, the first Russian space agency crew member to launch aboard a rocket from the United States since Nikolai Budarins flight aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-113 in 2002, and Dubrov are also recipients of the Hero of the Russian Federation title.

Anil Menon, born on Oct. 15, 1976, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, holds a bachelors degree in neurobiology from Harvard and is a United States Air
Force lieutenant colonel. He also pursued an aerospace medicine residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch and published his thesis on medical kits for commercial spaceflight.

During his Air Force career, Menon flew more than 100 sorties in the F-15 as
a flight surgeon for the 173rd Fighter Wing. He also supported the 45th Space Wing and acted as a first responder after the 2010 Haiti and 2015 Nepal earthquakes as well as the 2011 air race crash in Reno, Nevada. Menon became
a flight crew surgeon for NASA before joining SpaceX as its first flight surgeon in 2018. NASA Astronaut Group 23, known as The Flies, in a joint portrait. (Credit: NASA)

Menon supported several Crew Dragon missions before being selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in December 2021 as part of Astronaut Group 23, nicknamed The Flies. He will become the fourth member of this group to fly, following Nichole Ayers, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams.

Anil and Anna Menon, parents of two children, will have both flown in space after Soyuz MS-29 launches. Anil, a practicing physician, will conduct
various experiments during his eight-month stay aboard ISS. These include experiments studying blood flow in space, bioprinting vascular constructs in microgravity, and ultrasound using augmented reality, among others.

Soyuz MS-29 will be the first and only scheduled crewed launch from Baikonur this year, with Soyuz MS-30 and MS-31 expected to fly in 2027. This flight will also be the fifth crewed spaceflight and fourth orbital crewed flight of 2026.

(Lead image: The Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft and rocket on the launch pad before flight. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)



The post Soyuz MS-29 set to launch new crew to ISS from Russia appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/07/soyuz-ms-29-launch/


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