MOSCOW: A US-Russian space crew arrived Tuesday at the International Space Station after launching from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian crewmates Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina lifted off as scheduled at 7:47 p.m. (10:47 a.m. EDT, 1447 GMT) aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 for an eight-month stint on the orbiting outpost. Their spacecraft docked smoothly at the station in automatic mode about three hours after the launch.

NASA astronaut Anil Menon poses in a spacesuit for a portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas on Jan. 8, 2026. Menon will launch aboard the

Liftoff is scheduled for 10:47 a.m. ET.