The space nations Russia and the USA will fly together for the first time this Wednesday in times of severe tension to the International Space Station ISS.
On board a Soyuz rocket, the two cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio are scheduled to take off at 15:54 CEST from the Russian cosmodrome Baikonur in the steppes of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia.
It is the first joint flight since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The Russian space agency Roskosmos confirmed the start time and crew in Moscow in the evening.
The invasion is putting additional strain on already difficult relations between Moscow and Washington.
Russia complains that the sanctions imposed by the USA and the EU in the course of the war are making space work, including the production of rockets that can also be used for military purposes, more difficult.
The two cosmonauts Prokopyev and Petelin travel with Rubio in a Soyuz MS-22 space capsule in a three-hour flight to the outpost of mankind.
They are to spend six months there.
It was an "incredibly important mission," NASA astronaut Frank Rubio said at a press conference a few weeks before launch.
He gets along very well with his two Russian crew colleagues.
"We have become good friends, they know my family, I know theirs." Rubio described the cooperation between NASA and Roskosmos as "good and strong" - despite the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the resulting strong differences.
Russia has announced its exit from the ISS after 2024
"I think it's important that when there are moments of potential tension elsewhere, human spaceflight and exploration remains a form of cooperation, diplomacy and collaboration where we can find common ground and achieve great things together." on a continuation of the cooperation "for many more years".
In view of the conflict with the West, Russia recently announced that it would withdraw from the ISS after 2024.
An exact date was not given.
The German astronaut Matthias Maurer considers the announced withdrawal of Russia to be unlikely.
"You will not get out," he recently told the German Press Agency.
It's about reading between the lines with such Russian communications.
"'After 2024' doesn't mean January 1, 2025. That could also be 2030," said Maurer.
The new Roskosmos boss Yuri Borissow said at the end of July: "The decision to exit this station after 2024 has been made." According to Maurer, Roskosmos has now given in.
"We heard that they are still there." That is also plausible, after all, Russia only completed its part of the ISS last year.
"Russia is only now in a position to conduct proper research there."
3D printing experiments in space
Before the start of the 68th ISS mission, cosmonaut Prokopyev said: “The program is pretty full – in addition to fast docking, five exits into space are planned.” In addition, 48 experiments are planned, including work with a 3D printer in weightlessness.
The plan is therefore to print different figures out of different materials.
This may lead to a new generation of 3D printers in the future.
While it is Prokopyev's second flight into space, Petelin and Rubio fly for the first time.
The hardest thing for him personally will be the long separation from his wife and four children, said the astronaut, who was born in Los Angeles in 1975 and has been with NASA since 2017.
He will take a few family photos with him to the ISS.
The three of them will not be alone on the ISS, around 400 kilometers above the earth.
The commander of the 67th expedition, Oleg Artemyev, the cosmonauts Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov as well as the NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Jessica Watkins and the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti from the European space agency ESA are already on board.