The Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft carrying UAE astronaut Hazzaa Ali Almansoori has successfully docked at the International Space Station, following its six-hour journey from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan yesterday.
The rocket was guided by commander Oleg Skripochka, assisted by flight engineer Jessica Meir, who enjoyed a problem-free climb to ISS, arriving just before midnight.
Following the detailed docking process that too over two hours, they were met by the new crewmates, Expedition 60 commander Alexey Ovchinin, cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Christina Koch and Drew Morgan.
“I am so happy to hear your voices. I wish I could have shared what I saw with you. Beautiful scenery of sunsets and sunrises the Earth. I say hello to our leaders, our people and all the Arabs,” Al Mansoori said in his first words on board ISS.
Almansoori, who is the first Emirati astronaut, will stay eight days in orbit before returning to Earth on October 3, with Hague and Ovchinin – both coming to the end of a 202-day mission.
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