ISS crew to relocate Soyuz to make room for new members

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Three International Space Station (ISS) residents will take a spin around their orbital neighbourhood in the Soyuz MS-17 on March 19, relocating the spacecraft to prepare for the arrival of new crew members.</p>
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Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA and Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, both of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, will undock from the Earth-facing port of the station's Rassvet module and dock again at the space-facing Poisk docking port, NASA said in a blog post.</p>
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The relocation will free up the Rassvet port for the docking of another Soyuz vehicle, designated Soyuz MS-18, which will carry three Expedition 65 crew members to the station next month.</p>
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NASA's Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos' Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov are scheduled to launch to the station on April 9, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.</p>
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This will be the 15th overall Soyuz port relocation and the first since August 2019.</p>
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Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will return to Earth on April 17 in the Soyuz MS-17 that carried them to the space station in October 2020.</p>
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<em>(IANS)</em></p>