US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrive at the ISS together despite Ukraine war tensions

Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut docked with theInternational Space Station (ISS) on Friday (September 15), hours after setting off for the journey from Earth.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara successfully lifted off for the ISS aboard theSoyuz MS-24 spacecraft, from theBaikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, earlier in the day.

Three hours later, the crew docked at the ISS, according to the Russian space agency.The first to come aboard the ISS was O’Hara followed by Chub and Kononenko. The three new entrants were received bycosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and astronaut Frank Rubio who opened the hatch.

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After entering the Soviet module, they joinedNASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli,Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, Denmark's Andreas Mogensen and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa for the mission’s welcoming remarks.

WhileKononenko is a veteran of space, having clocked736 days in orbit across four different ISS missions, his partnersO'Hara and Chub are spaceflight rookies.During his yearlong stint at the ISS, Kononenko is expected to break the all-time record for most time spent in space, 878 days, held by fellow cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.

While the next batch arrived, cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA's Frank Rubio will return to Earth, aboarda Soyuz on September 27. Notably, Rubio will have spent 371 continuous days in space by that time, a record for an American astronaut.

Watch |SpaceX launches truly international astronaut team on Crew-7 flight to space station for NASA

Spacestill bridging gap between Russia & USA

Despite heightened tension between the two countries due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, space remains the only frontier where the two superpowers are still collaborating.

In the run-up to the mission,Kononenko reflected on the growing division between Washington and Moscow due to the war but said "unlike Earth"cosmonauts and astronauts took care of each other in space.

"We hear each other there, and we understand each other, and we are very sensitive to our relationships.We always take care of each other," he said during a pre-flight press conference.

Moscow, reeling from the disappointment of the crash of the Luna-25 lunar probe, will take momentarily solace in the achievements ofKononenko.

(With inputs from agencies)

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