Soyuz MS-16
First crewed Soyuz 2.1a launch; crew swapped due to injury.
Last updated
Soyuz MS-16 lifted off on April 9, 2020, ferrying three Expedition 62/63 crew members to the International Space Station. This mission marked the first crewed flight of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket and was Russia's first manned launch from a pad other than Gagarin's Start since Soyuz MS-02 in 2016.
Crew
Tikhonov and Babkin were expected to fly on Soyuz MS-17 in October 2020, but were not assigned. Tikhonov has since retired from Roscosmos; Babkin remains an active cosmonaut without a future flight assignment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, families and media could not watch the launch, and pre-launch traditions dating to Yuri Gagarin's flight were canceled.
Mission
Soyuz MS-16 launched on 9 April 2020 at 08:05:06 UTC from Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard a Soyuz 2.1a booster. The International Space Station passed over the launch site about three minutes before liftoff, and the booster climbed into its orbital plane. After six orbits, the spacecraft docked at the Poisk docking compartment at 14:13:18 UTC. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted congratulations, noting the crew was safely in orbit.
More in Human Spaceflights to the International Space Station
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Soyuz MS-16 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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