Record-breaking Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft crewmembers opened transfer hatches and moved to the International Space Station after a three hour and three minute flight. Following that, the first communication session took place between the full ISS-63 crew and TsNIIMash Mission Control Center (part of Roscosmos).

After opening the hatches, the ISS crew expanded to six members with Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Kathleen Rubins. Both Ryzhikov and Rubins have previously flown to Earth orbitm while Kud-Sverchkov has no spaceflight experience.

The Soyuz MS-17 mission is expected to reach 177 days. The new long-term expedition program includes scientific and applied research and experiments, station maintenance works and retrofitting it with the equipment delivered by cargo spacecraft. The flight program has over 50 scientific experiments with four of them new, as well as Russian extravehicular activities. The spacecraft delivered 173 kilograms of cargo: equipment sets for scientific experiments and biomedical research, expendable equipment and photographic equipment set, hygiene means and personal belongings of the crew, as well as standard food rations and 10 kilograms of fresh fruit.

On October 22, 2020, the Soyuz MS-16 with the ISS-63 crew of Anatoly Ivanishin, Ivan Vagner and Christopher Cassidy are expected to return to Earth. Moreover, in November the SpaceX Crew-1 mission is scheduled to launch adding astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi to the ISS-64 crew.

Roscosmos Press Service
https://www.roscosmos.ru/29404/