Souyz MS-25 to dock ISS on 25 March

The Souyz MS-25 crew comprising spacecraft commander, Hero of Russia, Belarusian national Oleg Novitsky, spaceflight participant from Belarus Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson are expected to dock the International Space Station on 25 March, BelTA learned from the Roscosmos State Corporation.

Docking is carried out in several stages. The Soyuz MS-25 is expected to begin its autonomous approach to the ISS at about 15:47 Minsk time. The Kurs rendezvous system (a radio-technical system of mutual measurements of motion parameters for the search, approach and docking of spacecraft with the orbital station) will turn on some 49 minutes later. At about 17:47 Soyuz MS-25 will start circling the ISS, then will hover and dock. Touchdown should occur at 18:10, after which the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft is expected to dock at a port on the station’s Earth-facing Prichal Module, a part of the Russian ISS Segment.

After docking, the cosmonauts will start preparing for the transition to the ISS. This process takes two to three 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. After that the process of opening the transition hatches begins.