NASA astronaut Chris Williams and his two Russian crewmates, cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Ovchinin, docked their Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft to the International Space Station on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2025, after a six-hour flight following liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This arrival marks the official start of their joint 8-month expedition on the orbiting laboratory, expanding the station’s crew to 10 members and enabling continued international collaboration in microgravity research. The mission’s timing aligns with holiday festivities, as the newcomers prepared to join Thanksgiving celebrations already underway aboard the ISS.
Crew Profile
NASA describes Chris Williams as a first-time spacefarer whose background in engineering and operations is central to his role on the station, with his assignment explicitly framed as part of a broader effort to sustain US-Russia partnerships in orbiting research and exploration, according to the agency’s mission overview for NASA astronaut Chris Williams, crewmates arriving at the space station. On the US segment, Williams is expected to coordinate science timelines, oversee key systems, and serve as a bridge between ground controllers and the multinational crew, responsibilities that underscore how individual astronauts now function as both operators and diplomats in low Earth orbit. His participation on a Russian Soyuz vehicle also reflects NASA’s continued use of multiple transportation providers to guarantee access to the ISS, a redundancy that remains strategically important for research continuity.
Roscosmos veteran Sergey Ryzhikov commands Soyuz MS-28, drawing on his prior experience from Expedition 49/50 to lead the crew through ascent, rendezvous, and docking, a role that Russian officials have long treated as a proving ground for leadership in future deep space missions. Alongside him, Alexey Ovchinin serves as Soyuz flight engineer, managing spacecraft systems and supporting the automated approach sequence, marking his return to the ISS after earlier long-duration flights that familiarized him with the station’s Russian segment and its life support hardware. Together with Williams, the trio forms a compact but highly experienced team whose combined flight history and technical skills are intended to keep the ISS operating smoothly while also signaling that, despite terrestrial tensions, operational cooperation between NASA and Roscosmos remains intact and focused on shared scientific goals.
Liftoff Sequence
The US-Russian crew of three began their journey when Soyuz MS-28 lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 10:59 a.m. EST on November 27, 2025, starting a fast-track rendezvous profile that would bring them to the station in roughly six hours, as detailed in coverage of the US-Russian crew of 3 blasting off to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The launch placed Soyuz MS-28 into the precise orbit required for a same-day docking, a trajectory that has become standard for crewed Soyuz missions because it reduces the time astronauts spend confined in the capsule and accelerates their handover into station operations. For mission planners, the successful ascent also validated ongoing coordination between Russian launch teams at Baikonur and NASA’s flight controllers, who must synchronize communications, tracking, and contingency plans across multiple control centers.
Pre-launch activities included detailed medical checks, final reviews of emergency procedures, and the traditional suit-up sequence in Sokol launch and entry suits, all of which were carried live for public audiences beginning roughly two hours before liftoff in broadcasts that highlighted the joint nature of the mission. Reporting on how to follow the flight emphasized that viewers could watch the NASA astronaut joining Russian cosmonauts for a Thanksgiving mission to the space station across multiple platforms, a visibility that space agencies increasingly treat as part of their mandate to demonstrate transparency and inspire public interest. For stakeholders in both countries, the smooth countdown and launch showed that, even as geopolitical disputes persist on the ground, the operational framework that supports human spaceflight from Baikonur remains robust and carefully choreographed.
Docking and Hatch Opening
After completing a series of orbit-raising burns and alignment checks, Soyuz MS-28 executed an automated docking to the Poisk module of the International Space Station at 4:58 p.m. EST on November 27, less than seven hours after launch, a timeline that mission reports on the Soyuz MS-28 crew’s Thanksgiving Day arrival at the ISS describe as nominal and right on schedule. The docking sequence relied on the Kurs rendezvous system and a carefully scripted approach corridor, with Ryzhikov and Ovchinin monitoring systems and prepared to take manual control if needed, while Williams tracked procedures and communications with ground controllers. Achieving a clean, automated docking is more than a technical milestone, since it reduces risk for the crew and preserves valuable propellant, which in turn affects how much cargo and fuel can be allocated to future visiting vehicles.
Following standard leak checks and pressure equalization, hatches between Soyuz MS-28 and the station opened at about 7 p.m. EST, allowing Williams, Ryzhikov, and Ovchinin to float into the ISS and be welcomed by the Expedition 72 crew, as outlined in the mission summary for the US-Russian crew of 3 starting an 8-month mission on the International Space Station. The timing meant the newcomers arrived just in time to join Thanksgiving meal preparations that were already underway, turning the traditional crew greeting ceremony into a holiday gathering that underscored the human side of long-duration spaceflight. For NASA and Roscosmos managers, the seamless transition from docking to hatch opening and integration into daily activities demonstrated that the station’s procedures for expanding to a 10-person crew remain well practiced, a critical factor when multiple visiting vehicles and overlapping expeditions are scheduled within tight windows.
Mission Objectives Ahead
With their arrival, Williams, Ryzhikov, and Ovchinin begin an 8-month expedition that will see them contribute to more than 200 experiments focused on human health in space, technology demonstrations, and Earth observation, a workload that NASA highlights in its overview of how the US-Russian crew of 3 starts an 8-month mission on the International Space Station. Williams is expected to oversee US segment activities, including studies on bone density, muscle atrophy, and radiation exposure, which feed directly into planning for future lunar missions and eventual Mars expeditions. On the Russian side, Ryzhikov and Ovchinin will manage experiments tied to life support optimization and spacecraft systems reliability, areas where Roscosmos has decades of experience that remain valuable to the broader international partnership.
The rotation also refreshes the station’s long-duration crew composition, replacing outgoing members and ensuring that critical maintenance tasks, such as external inspections and hardware upgrades, can proceed without interruption through mid-2026. NASA has linked this continuity to preparations for the Artemis program, arguing that lessons learned from ISS operations, including how crews manage complex logistics and long-term habitation, directly inform the design of lunar Gateway systems and surface missions, a connection underscored in the agency’s description of NASA astronaut Chris Williams and his crewmates arriving at the space station. For policymakers and program managers, the mission’s objectives therefore extend beyond the immediate science return, serving as a live testbed for the procedures, technologies, and international coordination that will be required as human exploration moves farther from Earth.
Holiday Timing and Public Engagement
The fact that Soyuz MS-28 launched and docked on Thanksgiving Day gave the mission a distinctive public profile, with coverage emphasizing that a NASA astronaut was sharing a holiday ride to orbit with Russian colleagues, as highlighted in reporting on the NASA astronaut joining Russian cosmonauts for a Thanksgiving Day ride to the International Space Station. For audiences in the United States, the image of an American crew member celebrating Thanksgiving in microgravity alongside Russian partners offered a rare example of visible cooperation at a time when terrestrial relations remain strained. Space agencies have increasingly leaned on such symbolic moments to maintain public interest, recognizing that human stories, including shared meals and holiday traditions, can make complex technical missions more relatable.
Pre-flight outreach also focused on how viewers could follow the launch and docking in real time, with schedules and streaming details laid out in advance so that families gathering for the holiday could tune in together, a strategy described in guides explaining how to watch the NASA astronaut’s launch for the ISS on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. By aligning a high-profile crew rotation with a major US holiday, NASA and Roscosmos effectively turned a routine operational milestone into a shared cultural event, reinforcing the idea that the ISS is not only a laboratory but also a place where international crews live, work, and mark the passage of time together. For stakeholders who argue for continued investment in low Earth orbit, that kind of public engagement is a key part of building long-term support for human spaceflight programs.
