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New crew members move from Soyuz spacecraft to ISS

The new members include Russia’s Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko, as well as US astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough

KOROLYOV /Moscow Region/, October 21. /TASS/. The crew of the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft, which docked with the International Space Station several hours ago, has opened the hatches and moved to the ISS, Mission Control near Moscow told TASS.

"The crew of the manned cargo spacecraft has begun transfer to the ISS," Mission Control said.

Soyuz has brought to the ISS Russia’s Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko, as well as US astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough.

On board the ISS they have been welcomed by the crew of the previous expedition - Russia’s Aleksey Ivanishin, Japan’s Takuya Onishi, and NASA’s Kathleen Rubins - who are to travel back to Earth on October 30. It is expected that the Soyuz MS will separate from the ISS at 03:36 Moscow time to land in Kazakhstan’s steppe at 06:59 Moscow time.

The Soyuz-FG rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur space site in Kazakhstan at 11:05 on October 19. Nine and a half minutes later the ship entered the expected orbit and started closing up with the ISS. At 12:59 on October 21 the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the Russian module of the ISS in the automatic mode.

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