{"id":188541,"date":"2025-12-17T16:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T16:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/188541\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T16:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T16:50:08","slug":"crewed-russian-spacecraft-meets-up-with-iss-photo-of-the-day-for-dec-17-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/188541\/","title":{"rendered":"Crewed Russian spacecraft meets up with ISS photo of the day for Dec. 17, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suspended above the Mediterranean Sea, Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft made its final approach to<\/a> the International Space Station<\/a> (ISS) on Nov. 27, 2025, the same day it launched from Earth. Not only did Soyuz MS-28 carry three new crew members beginning their mission, but it also helped to make a historical first for the ISS<\/p>\n

Though the liftoff was successful, there was a downside: During the launch, Baikonur’s Pad 31\/6 \u2014 the only pad that hosts Russian crew and cargo launches to the ISS \u2014 sustained serious damage<\/a>, and it’s unclear when it will be repaired.<\/p>\n

What is it?<\/p>\n

The Soyuz<\/a> (Russian for “unison”) program began during the height of the space race in the 1960s as the Soviet Union’s third human spaceflight program, following Vostok <\/a>and Voskhod<\/a>. Soyuz was originally conceived as part of a lunar landing project. Soyuz never made it to the moon, but it’s still going strong decades later.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Aboard Soyuz MS-28 were three long-duration crew members:<\/a> NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Mikaev and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. The three men will participate in an eight-month mission as part of the ISS’ Expedition 73.<\/p>\n

Where is it?<\/p>\n

This image was taken in low Earth orbit<\/a>, around 263 miles (432 kilometers) above the Mediterranean Sea near Barcelona.<\/p>\n

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Soyuz MS-28 arrived at the ISS the same day it launched. (Image credit: NASA)Why is it amazing?<\/p>\n

While the Soyuz program itself is historic, the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft helped made some history of its own. With Soyuz MS-28 docked at the International Space Station, all eight of the ISS’ visiting vehicle docking ports<\/a> were occupied at the same time, a first in the orbital outpost’s 25-year history.<\/p>\n

Want to learn more?<\/p>\n

You can learn more about the International Space Station<\/a> and the Soyuz program.<\/a><\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suspended above the Mediterranean Sea, Russia’s Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft made its final approach to the International Space Station…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-188541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}