Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three cosmonauts launching this Friday

Following Tuesday's successful spacewalk, the Expedition 66 crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is set to welcome three new crewmates. The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft carrying three cosmonauts will lift off on Friday at 11:55 a.m. EDT.

The spaceship carrying veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, with first-time station visitors Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov will dock to the station's Prichal module. Live coverage of the launch event will begin at 11:15 a.m. on Friday on NASA TV, the official app and the agency's website.

Earlier this week, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei broke the record for the most consecutive days in space by an American explorer. Vande Hei will land in Kazakhstan with a NASA record-breaking 355 days in space. This duration breaks the previous record, held by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, by 15 days. 

The station is set to welcome three new crewmates on Friday. Meanwhile, the Exp 66 crew focused on life science today following Tuesday's spacewalk. https://t.co/5mXZUm7mRV

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 17, 2022

Meanwhile, NASA's Artemis I Moon-bound rocket is ready to roll Thursday, March 17 to Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its wet dress rehearsal test targeted to begin on April 1. The uncrewed Artemis I mission is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the Moon and beyond.

Update 1

The Russian trio on the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft docked to the space station's Prichal module at 3:12 p.m. EDT.