Roscosmos announced the successful launch of Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin into space as part of cross-flights between Russia and the United States.
The launch of the Falcon-9 launch vehicle with the Crew Dragon spacecraft from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida took place at 22:53 local time on March 3. Moscow time, the launch occurred on March 4 at 06:53. The ship was put into the specified orbit and separated from the second stage of the rocket without incident. It is expected that the docking of Crew Dragon to the Harmony nodal module of the American segment of the ISS will take place on March 5 at 11:00 Moscow time.
Along with Grebenkin, astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeannette Epps went into space. The Crew-8 crew's flight has been repeatedly postponed due to weather conditions.
The Crew-8 mission is expected to last approximately 180 days. It is known that Crew Dragon has become a record-breaking spacecraft among those designed to transport people to and from Earth - it has already spent 466 days in orbit.
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