The next crewed mission to the International Space Station is set for launch from Kazakhstan. The Soyuz MS-28 mission, carrying two Roscosmos cosmonauts and a single NASA astronaut to the orbiting laboratory, is scheduled to liftoff from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday, Nov. 27, at 09:27 UTC. The mission marks the final launch to the Station as part of Expedition 73, with Expedition 74 set to begin in early December.
Following launch, the Soyuz spacecraft will complete just two orbits of Earth before performing an automated docking with the Rassvet module at 12:38 UTC on Thursday. Once docked to the Station, the Soyuz spacecraft will be prepared for hatch opening, and the three crew members will enter the Station. The Soyuz MS-28 crew is expected to live on the orbiting laboratory for eight months, with an undocking currently scheduled for late July 2026.
Soyuz MS-28 crew
The Soyuz MS-28 crew is comprised of two Russian cosmonauts and a single NASA astronaut. Two crew members will be making their first flights to space. Crews that fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz usually feature a commander and two flight engineers.
Soyuz MS-28’s commander is Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. Born in August 1983 in Soviet Kazakhstan, Kud-Sverchkov will be making his second flight to the Station on Soyuz MS-28 after serving as a flight engineer on Soyuz MS-17 in 2020.
After graduating from Moscow State Technical University with a degree in rocket engineering, Kud-Sverchkov worked as an engineer at RSC Energia — the manufacturer of Soyuz spacecraft — before being selected for cosmonaut training in April 2010. Kud-Sverchkov completed training in August 2012 and was assigned to ISS Expedition 63/64 in May 2020. The cosmonaut spent 184 days, 23 hours, and 10 minutes in orbit during his first mission before returning to Earth in April 2021.
Soyuz MS-28’s crew (left to right): Christopher Williams, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergey Mikaev. (Credit: NASA/James Blair)
The first of Soyuz MS-28’s two flight engineers is Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Mikayev. A former military pilot and Major in the Russian Air Force, Mikayev was born in August 1986 in Irkutsk, Soviet Russia, and graduated from the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots. Roscosmos selected Mikayev for two-year cosmonaut training in 2018 as part of the 17th Cosmonaut Group.
After completing cosmonaut training, Mikayev was open for assignments to long-duration missions to the ISS. He was first assigned to Soyuz MS-27 as a reserve cosmonaut and backup flight engineer, in case any of the primary Soyuz MS-27 crew were unable to fly. After Soyuz MS-27 launched in April 2025 with its primary crew, Mikayev was reassigned to Soyuz MS-28 as a flight engineer on the primary crew. Soyuz MS-28 will serve as Mikayev’s first flight to space and the ISS.
The final Soyuz MS-28 crew member is NASA astronaut Christopher Williams, serving as the second flight engineer. Born in New York City and raised in Potomac, Maryland, Williams graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. Williams continued his education and graduated with a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012. His Ph.D. thesis and research focused on astrophysics and radio cosmology, and Williams was a part of the team that constructed the Murchison Widefield Array low-frequency radio telescope in Australia.
Soyuz MS-28 crew during training. (Credit: RKK Energia)
Following graduate school, Williams joined Harvard Medical School as a professor and clinical physicist, and he researched new image-guidance techniques for cancer treatment at hospitals and health institutes in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2021, as part of NASA Astronaut Group 23 (nicknamed “The Flies”), the agency announced it had selected Williams as an astronaut candidate. Williams reported for training in January 2022 and completed two years of training.
After being opened to assignments in 2024, Williams was assigned to Soyuz MS-28 in early 2025. Soyuz MS-28 will serve as William’s first flight into space and to the ISS.
The Soyuz MS-28 backup crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, and NASA astronaut Anil Menon. Dubrov serves as the backup commander, while Kikina and Menon serve as backup flight engineers. If none of the primary Soyuz MS-28 crew members need replacement before launch, Dubrov, Kikina, and Menon will comprise the next crewed Soyuz mission to the ISS, Soyuz MS-29, which is scheduled to launch in July 2026.
The Soyuz MS-28 backup crew (Menon, Dubrov, and Kikina) watch as the Soyuz MS-28 rocket and spacecraft rollout for launch. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Soyuz MS-28’s vehicles and launch
Currently, all Soyuz crewed missions launch to the ISS atop a Russian Soyuz 2.1a rocket. Crew members fly to the Station inside the Soyuz MS spacecraft — the most recent iteration of Russia’s long-serving Soyuz spacecraft, which has been flying since the 1960s.
The “MS” in the Soyuz MS name stands for “modernized systems.” The Soyuz MS was introduced in 2016 as an upgrade to the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft, with improved navigation, communications, and other onboard systems. All Soyuz MS spacecraft are manufactured by RSC Energia, which has been constructing all Soyuz spacecraft for the Soviet Union and Russia since 1967.
The Soyuz MS spacecraft flying on Soyuz MS-28 is Soyuz MS No. 753, flying with the callsign “Gyrfalcon.” Notably, this was not the original Soyuz spacecraft scheduled to fly Soyuz MS-28. Soyuz MS No. 759 was initially allocated to Soyuz MS-28, but after sustaining significant damage to its heat shield during post-production testing at RSC Energia, Soyuz MS No. 753 was assigned to the mission. No. 753 was initially planned for use on a commercial crewed mission to the ISS. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Roscosmos’ commercial contracts were cancelled, freeing up Soyuz MS No. 753 for a regular crew rotation flight to the ISS.
The Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft is prepared for fairing encapsulation. (Credit: Roscosmos)
As mentioned, the Soyuz MS spacecraft flies to orbit atop the Soyuz 2.1a rocket. One of the two variants of the Soyuz 2 rocket introduced in the mid-2000s, the Soyuz 2.1a first flew in November 2004 and has successfully flown 73 missions with two failures and one partial failure. Soyuz 2.1a can launch from four launch sites across Russia and Kazakhstan: Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Sites 43/3 and 43/4 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, and Site 1S at the Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Soyuz 2.1a is a 46.3 m tall, 10.3 m diameter three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle manufactured by RKTs Progress. The four strap-on liquid-fuelled boosters serve as the rocket’s first stage, with each booster featuring a single RD-107A engine. The four boosters are strapped onto the second stage (also known as the core stage), which features a single RD-108A engine. Lastly, the third stage sits atop the core stage and features an RD-0110 engine. All three stages utilize liquid oxygen and liquid kerosene (RP-1) propellants.
Due to the nature of orbital dynamics and the ISS’s orbit, Soyuz MS-28 has an instantaneous launch window at 09:27 UTC. If there are any delays in the countdown to launch, the mission will be scrubbed and move to a backup launch opportunity. A scrub would also require a new docking time.
Soyuz 2.1a and Soyuz MS-28 are raised vertical at Site 31/6. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Following launch at 09:27 UTC from Site 31/6, Soyuz and the Soyuz MS-28 crew will fly on a northeastern trajectory out of Baikonur. Following first and second stage separation, the third stage will insert the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft and crew into orbit. Soyuz MS-28, filled with around 125 kg of crew and cargo, will then separate from the third stage and spend the next three hours matching its orbit to that of the ISS.
Finally, at 12:38 UTC, just T+03:11:00 hours after launch, Soyuz MS-28 will dock to the ISS, beginning an eight-month stay on the orbiting laboratory for the three crew members.
(Lead image: Soyuz MS-28 on the pad at Baikonur. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
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