(Update: Launched) Watch next space station crew launch aboard Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on Friday

Three new crew members are gearing up for a short ride to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on Friday, September 15. The Soyuz MS-24 rocket carrying the crew ship will lift off from a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:44 a.m. EDT.

The trio, comprising NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, will ride the Soyuz crew ship and dock to the station's Rassvet module at 2:56 p.m. the same day. O'Hara will stay for six months aboard the orbital outpost, and Kononenko and Chub both will spend a year on the orbital outpost.

Expedition 69 Commander Sergey Prokopyev and Flight Engineer Dmitri Petelin will monitor the arrival of the new Soyuz at the space station.

NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara is set to launch to the @Space_Station aboard a Soyuz rocket on Friday, Sept. 15 with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub. Launch is set for 11:44 am ET. More 📷: https://t.co/W88kV09ILT pic.twitter.com/QLQlDDCnYe

— NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) September 14, 2023

Meanwhile, Prokopyev, Petelin, and NASA Flight Engineer Frank Rubio are preparing for their return to Earth inside the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on September 27. When Rubio lands with his Soyuz crewmates, he will have the record for the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut at 371 days.

Update 1

The Soyuz MS-24 with one NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts aboard embarks on its journey to the International Space Station.

Liftoff! @LunarLoral of @NASA_Astronauts and two cosmonaut crewmates are on their way to the @Space_Station. They'll dock about three hours from now. pic.twitter.com/4JTtfcgQZC

— NASA (@NASA) September 15, 2023

Update 2

Soyuz MS-24 docked to the ISS at 2:53 p.m. EDT while the station was travelling 260 miles over Ukraine, south of Kiev.