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First time it only took 3 hours: Soyuz MS-17 docked with ISS

October 14, 2020

At 11:48:50 Moscow Time, just a little bit more than three hours after its lift-off, the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft completed a normal docking with the Rassvet module of the Russian Segment of the International Space Station. It was the world’s first docking with the ISS of a manned spacecraft that had completed just two orbits around Earth. In addition to this, a new record was established for flights to the International Space Station – the total time from Soyuz MS-17 to docking was 3 hours and 3 minutes. The previous record had been set by the cargo spacecraft Progress MS-15, which took 3 hours and 18 minutes.

The rendezvous was performed in automatic mode under supervision by specialists from the Lead Operations Control Team for the ISS Russian Segment (which is a part of the State Corporation Roscosmos). At present the crews is performing operations to prepare for the opening of the hatches: they run leakage checks on the spacecraft modules and equalize pressure between the ISS and Soyuz, as well as doff pressure suits Sokol KV-2. Upon completion of the leakage check of the joint between the spacecraft and Rassvet module, preliminary plans call for opening of the hatches at 13:45 Moscow Time. After which the crew of Soyuz MS-17 consisting of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins will transfer to the ISS. They will join the crew that currently works onboard the station and consists of Anantoli Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner and Chris Cassidy. Live transmission will be available in the Online Broadcasts section beginning from 13:30 Moscow Time.

Switching to the use of this new so-called “super-quick” flight profile only became possible with the introduction into service of the new launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1a, which has performance and control system capabilities that enable high-precision orbital insertion of spacecraft. An important feature in implementation of the two-orbit rendezvous profile is pre-forming of the required working orbit of the ISS and precise execution of the autonomous guidance program loaded in the Soyuz MS onboard computer.
Earlier, on October 14, 2020, at 08:45:04 Moscow Time, the launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1a carrying the manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-17 successfully lifted-off from the Baikonur Launch Site. It delivered to the ISS a new international crew that has the call sign “Favors”.