A three-person crew aboard the Soyuz spacecraft reached the International Space Station (ISS) on October 14, 2020, after a journey of just three hours and three minutes, four minutes ahead of schedule. It was the fastest ever for a manned craft to the orbital lab, returning a medical researcher to the orbiting laboratory ahead of the 20th anniversary of uninterrupted human presence in space, as per the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. Usually, journeys to the ISS take around six hours as a result of vast improvement on the two-day flights that prevailed before 2013. For the first time, a manned journey was completed in such a short time, which even beat the fastest time of missions and carried supplies to the ISS.
The crew, consisting Sergey Ryzhikov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, and Kathleen Rubins of NASA, launched from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This is the second spaceflight for Rubins and Ryzhikov, whereas the first for Kud-Sverchkov, who will live and work aboard the outpost for six months. They will conduct research in technology development, namely, earth science, biology, human research, and so on. Ryzhikov will command the operations at the ISS when the change of command ceremony with all crew members takes place as scheduled for October 20.
Four new members will be part of crew in November with the arrival of Crew-1, aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon on the first operational commercial mission to the space station. Thus, America would become capable of regularly launching humans from its soil after the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011.
Research conducted in microgravity has helped NASA prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars and has contributed to improvements for life on Earth. Astronauts continue to test technologies, perform science, and develop the skills needed to explore aboard the orbiting laboratory. So far, 241 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity destination, which has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas of the world.
Courtesy: ndtv.com. nasa.gov