Soyuz MS-27 is a Russian crewed

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 that launched on 8April 2025 from Site 31/6 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

, bound for 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 ...

. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying three crew members,

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 ...

cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, along with

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 ...

astronaut Jonny Kim.

Mission

The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft, assembled by Energia, was transported by rail from its manufacturing facility in Korolev, Russia, to the

in Kazakhstan, arriving in December 2024. Final testing and processing commenced in mid-January 2025.⁠ Meanwhile, the components for the Soyuz-2.1a rocket were manufactured by RKTs Progress in

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

, Russia, and shipped by rail to Baikonur, where assembly was underway by the end of January. Final spacecraft preparations resumed in early March. On 24 March, both the primary and backup crews conducted a fit check of their Sokol launch and entry suits and participated in familiarization training inside the flight-ready spacecraft. Propellant loading was completed on 25 March, followed shortly by cargo loading. On 27 March, Soyuz MS-27 was mated to its launch vehicle adapter.⁠ Additional crew training took place on 2 April, as members of Expedition 73 completed their final onboard exercises inside the fully assembled Soyuz MS-27. The following day, the payload section—including the spacecraft—was transported from the processing facility to the vehicle assembly building at Site 31/6, where it was integrated with the Soyuz-2.1a rocket. Integration was completed on 4 April. On the morning of 5April, the fully assembled launch vehicle was rolled out to the launch pad at Site 31/6. The rocket was decorated with decals to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Three days later, on 8April at 05:47:15UTC, Soyuz MS-27 lifted off atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome as scheduled. After an 8-minute 49-second ascent, the third stage engine cutoff occurred, and the Soyuz MS-27 was released into its initial orbit three seconds later. The spacecraft proceeded with a fast-track rendezvous and successfully docked to the nadir port of the Prichal module at 08:57:43UTC, just 3hours, 10minutes and 28seconds after launch. The crew entered the station at 09:28UTC.

Crew

References

{{Crewed ISS flights Crewed Soyuz missions 2025 in spaceflight 2025 in Russia