NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina arrived at the International Space Station on July 14, 2026, following a Russian Soyuz launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
What Happened
The trio lifted off atop a Soyuz rocket at 10:47 a.m. EDT (1447 GMT) and executed nominal ascent milestones including side booster separation about two minutes after liftoff and second stage separation roughly 2.5 minutes later. Third stage orbital insertion was completed around 8 minutes and 46 seconds, placing the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft on course for the ISS. The crew caught up to the station after just two orbits, docking with the outpost at 1:52 p.m. EDT (1752 GMT) while flying 260 miles above the Mediterranean Sea. Menon, selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in December 2021, is making his first spaceflight. Dubrov lived aboard the ISS from April 2021 to March 2022, and Kikina spent five months on the outpost from October 2022 to March 2023.
Why It Matters
The mission adds three more crew members to the seven astronauts already living aboard the station, expanding research capacity at a time when multiple international partners rely on continuous human presence for scientific work. The flight also underscores ongoing U.S.-Russia cooperation in human spaceflight; Kikina previously became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on an American commercial spacecraft when she flew SpaceX's Crew-5 mission in 2022, marking a notable cross-agency exchange that continues with this rotation.
The Bottom Line
The MS-29 crew is slated to spend roughly eight months aboard the orbiting lab, where Menon will help conduct experiments including semiconductor crystal production research for high-performance computing and augmented reality-assisted ultrasound using artificial intelligence methods.