Soyuz MS-21 was a Russian

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

spaceflight to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(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 Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a State corporation (Russia), state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space science, space flights, List of space agencies, c ...

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 The Kazakh Steppe ( ), also known as the Great Steppe or Great Betpak-Dala, Dala ( ), is a vast region of open grassland in Central Asia, covering areas in northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas of Russia. It lies east of the Pontic–Caspian step ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

Crew

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

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

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 at ...

was preparing to replace Sergey Korsakov 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 and SpaceX Crew-5.

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 is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

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, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, 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; ), sometimes colloquially referred as the ''Bauman School'' or ''Baumanka'' (), is a public technical university (Institute of technology, polytechnic) located in Moscow, Russia. Bauman Univ ...

, 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 in Russia Fully civilian crewed orbital spaceflights Sergei Korolev