Roscosmos official confirms successful docking of Soyuz MS-25 to ISS

KOROLYOV, 25 March (BelTA) – A  Roscosmos representative has confirmed that the Soyuz MS-25 manned spacecraft with Belarus’ first spacefarer Marina Vasilevskaya on board has successfully docked to the International Space Station, BelTA reports from the Roscosmos Mission Control Center.

“The crew carried out an automated docking, everything proceeded as planned. The crew was supervising the process, and the spacecraft guided itself to a flawless automated docking to the ISS. Thus, everything went smoothly,” said Executive Director for Human Space Programs of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation Sergei Krikalev.

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft is crewed by Belarus’ space flight participant Marina Vasilevskaya, spacecraft commander, Belarusian national Oleg Novitsky and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson.

Soyuz MS-25 docked at the port of the Earth-facing Prichal Node Module, a part of the Russian ISS Segment. After docking, the cosmonauts will start preparing for the transition to the ISS. This process takes about two hours: it is necessary to equalize the pressure on the station and the spacecraft, to check the tightness of the docking, to carry out a number of other important procedures.