module, as the
aurora australis arcs back and forth above a partly cloudy Indian Ocean in the distance The Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft, assembled by
Energia, was transported by rail from its manufacturing facility in
Korolev, Russia, to the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, arriving in December 2024. Final testing and processing commenced in mid-January 2025. Meanwhile, the components for the Soyuz-2.1a rocket were manufactured by
RKTs Progress in
Samara, Russia, and shipped by rail to Baikonur, where assembly was underway by the end of January. Three days later on 8April at 05:47:15UTC, Soyuz MS-27 lifted off atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome as scheduled. After an 8-minute 49-second ascent, the third stage engine cutoff occurred, and the Soyuz MS-27 was released into its initial orbit three seconds later. The spacecraft proceeded with a fast-track rendezvous and successfully docked to the nadir port of the Prichal module at 08:57:43UTC, just 3hours, 10minutes and 28seconds after launch. The crew entered the station at 09:28UTC. == Crew ==