Soyuz MS-28 Crew Arrives at International Space Station on Thanksgiving Day
A new team of space explorers – NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub – successfully launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft on november 23, 2023, Thanksgiving Day. The launch occurred at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The arrival of the Soyuz MS-28 crew replaces the team of Soyuz MS-27/73S commander Sergey Ryzhikov, flight engineer Alexey Zubritsky, and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who launched to the ISS in April 2023 and are scheduled to return to Earth in early December after an eight-month mission.
Upon reaching the ISS, O’Hara and her crewmates were greeted by NASA Crew 11, consisting of commander Zena Cardman, Michael Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, who arrived in August 2023 and are slated to return home in February or March following the arrival of their replacements, Crew 12.
All eleven astronauts and cosmonauts participated in a traditional welcome video call with mission control and their families in Moscow before beginning safety briefings and familiarizing themselves with the station’s complex systems.
O’Hara, a graduate of Stanford university with a degree in physics, brings a unique background to the astronaut corps. Before joining NASA, she worked as a clinical physicist and researcher at Harvard Medical School, applying her expertise in radio astronomy and image processing to radiation oncology. She initially volunteered as an EMT and firefighter, finding fulfillment in directly impacting people’s lives. She is the second astronaut from the 2021 class to reach space.
O’Hara acknowledged the challenges of training for a Soyuz launch, notably the extensive travel involved, and credited her wife, Aubrey, with maintaining stability for their family during the preparation period.
Looking ahead to her eight-month stay, O’Hara expressed her eagerness to contribute to the ongoing scientific research aboard the ISS, stating her goal is to ”put my training into practice and to do a really good job to push forward the science and research” being conducted in space. she emphasized the importance and inspiring nature of the work being done on the station.
