BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan- Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut docked with the International Space Station on Friday after blasting off from Baikonur amid raging tensions between Moscow and Washington over Ukraine.
The Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft carrying the International Space Station Expedition 70-71 crew of US NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Russian Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub blasts off to the ISS from the Moscow-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 15, 2023.
Kononenko alluded to the tensions during a pre-flight press conference on Thursday, saying that"unlike on earth" cosmonauts and astronauts took care of each other in space. Chub said that travelling to space was his"childhood dream" and he had dedicated"all his life" to reaching that goal. On Wednesday, Putin hosted the reclusive leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, at Russia's new Vostochny spaceport in the Far East, and the two discussed the possibility of sending a North Korean into space.