Soyuz MS-18 “Y. A. Gagarin” launch

A launch vehicle launched the Soyuz MS-18 “Y. A. Gagarin” spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 9 April 2021, at 07:42 UTC (12:42 local time, 03:42 EDT). The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft is named “Y. A. Gagarin” to celebrate 60 years since the first human spaceflight in history, the Vostok-1 mission that launched Yuri Gagarin in space on 12 April 1961. The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy, Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, is scheduled for a two-orbit, three-hour journey to dock to the International Space Station’s Rassvet module. Credit: NASA/Roscosmos launches Soyuz MS-18 Пуск Союз-2.1а с Союз МС-18