KOROLYOV, 25 March (BelTA) – The first Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya has arrived at the International Space Station, a BelTA journalist from Roscosmos’ mission control center reports.
At 20:24 the crew were allowed to open the docking hatches. Literally three minutes later the mission control center’s commentator confirmed that the hatches had been opened.
After the manned crew transfer vehicle Soyuz MS-25 docked at the ISS and the docking hatches were opened, Marina Vasilevskaya entered the International Space Station together with the Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and the NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson. As a true gentlemen Oleg Novitsky allowed the ladies to enter the station first: Marina Vasilevskaya was the first one to “swim” into the ISS, she was followed by Tracy Dyson, and only then by the crew commander.
The new arrivals were welcomed by the crew of the 70th long expedition to the ISS: the Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Alexander Grebenkin, the NASA astronauts Loral O'Hara, Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps. At present the International Space Station is home to ten people.
Marina Vasilevskaya raised the total number of countries, which citizens have been to the International Space Station, to 22.