The Soyuz MS-17 rocket is seen on the launch pad with Expedition 64 Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins boarded their spacecraft for launch, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The trio launched at 1:45 a.m. EDT to begin a six-month mission onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Dragon spacecraft on top is seen at sunset on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Crew-6 mission, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are scheduled to launch at 1:45 a.m. EST on Feb. 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson, left, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, center, and Fight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA, are seen inside the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft shortly after in landed near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017 (Kazakh time). Whitson is returning after 288 days in space where she served as a member of the Expedition 50, 51 and 52 crews. Yurchikhin and Fischer are returning after 136 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 51 and 52 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The Expedition 52 crew members (front row, from left) are Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik. In the back row (from left) are, NASA astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson, European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy.

Tim Peake of the European Space Agency rests in a chair outside the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft just minutes after he and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos and Tim Kopra of NASA landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Kopra, Peake, and Malenchenko are returning after six months in space where they served as members of the Expedition 46 and 47 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

A technician places a nearly 70 kg parachute designed for ESA and Roscosmos’s ExoMars 2020 mission inside the dry heater steriliser of the Agency’s Life, Physical Sciences and Life Support Laboratory, based in its Netherlands technical centre.

Mars is a potential abode of past and perhaps even present-day life. Accordingly, international planetary protection regulations require any mission sent to the Red Planet to undergo rigorous sterilisation, to prevent terrestrial microbes from piggybacking their way there.

The Lab’s Alan Dowson explains: “This is the ‘qualification model’ of the 35-m diameter main parachute for ExoMars 2020, basically a test version which allows us to finalise our sterilisation procedures ahead of the flight model chute’s arrival.

“This version has been threaded with thermal sensors, allowing us to see how long it takes to reach the required sterilisation temperature in all parts of the folded parachute, even in the hardest to heat points. Our target was to sterilise at 125 °C for 35 hours and 26 minutes, and the oven took about 44 hours to reach that temperature to begin with.”

The oven is part of the Lab’s 35 sq. m ‘ISO Class 1’ cleanroom, one of the cleanest places in Europe. All the cleanroom’s air passes through a two-stage filter system. Anyone entering the chamber has to gown up in a much more rigorous way than a hospital surgeon, before passing through an air shower to remove any remaining contaminants.

“If you imagine our clean room as being as big as the entire Earth’s atmosphere, then its allowable contamination would be equal to a single hot air balloon,” adds Alan. “Our ISO 1 rating means we have less than 10 dust particles measuring a tenth of one millionth of a metre in diameter per cubic metre of air.”

The mostly nylon and Kevlar parachute, packed into an 80-cm diameter donut-shaped unit, was delivered by Italy’s Arescosmo company. This qualification model will now be sent back there for testing, to ensure this sterilisation process causes no change to the parachute’s material properties.

Alan explains: “We will receive the parachute flight model later this spring for the same sterilisation process – identical to this version, except without any thermal sensors.”

ExoMars’s smaller first stage 15-m diameter parachute has already gone through sterilisation using the oven. This is the parachute that opens during initial, supersonic atmospheric entry, with the second, larger chute opening once the mission has been slowed to subsonic velocity.

The Lab has also tackled a variety of ExoMars instruments and subsystems, but this second stage subsonic parachute is the single largest item to be sterilised. The sterilisation process aims to reduce the overall mission ‘bioburden’ to a 10 thousandth of its original level.

Credits: ESA–M. Cowan

nhq202104060020 (April 6, 2021) --- The Soyuz rocket is raised vertical, Tuesday, April 6, 2021, at the Site 31 launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Two emergency egress vehicles are seen positioned at the slidewire termination area at Launch Complex 39A as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, Thursday, March 2, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev launched at 12:34 a.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission aboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

iss065e085163 (June 2, 2021) --- Expedition 65 Flight Engineer and Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov is pictured during a seven-hour and 19-minute spacewalk to ready the Pirs docking compartment ahead of its upcoming departure. The Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, being launched soon from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will replace Pirs on the Zvezda service module's Earth-facing port.

Приближается важнейшая космическая дата этого года – #20летМКС!

Благодаря экипажу корабля «Союз МС-08» мы с вами теперь можем любоваться новыми фотографиями Международной космической станции!

Спасибо космонавту Олегу Артемьеву, астронавтам NASA Эндрю Фойстелу и Ричарду Арнольду за этот фотоподарок к юбилею станции, а также всем, кто принимал участие в организации космической фотосессии и корректировке программы спуска с орбиты пилотируемого корабля.

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Soon we are going to celebrate this year’s most important space anniversary, #20yearsISS!

Thanks to the crew of Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft, we now have the opportunity to enjoy new photographs of the International Space Station! We want to extend our thanks to the cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold along with everyone who took part in organizing the space photoshoot and helping to correct the program of the manned spacecraft’s descent from the orbit for this wonderful gift just in time for the station’s anniversary.

Credit: Roscosmos/ NASA

iss069e008757 (May 3, 2023) --- Roscosmos spacewalkers Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin work outside the International Space Station's Roscosmos segment during the installation of an experiment airlock on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

The Soyuz TMA-19M rocket is launched with Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency), Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Malenchenko, Kopra, and Peake will spend the next six-months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

nhq201606180002 (06/18/2016) --- The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 47 crew members Tim Kopra of NASA, Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Kopra, Peake, and Malenchenko are returning after six months in space where they served as members of the Expedition 46 and 47 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, left, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, center, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos sit in chairs outside the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft a few moments after they landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016(Kazakh time). Williams, Ovchinin, and Skripochka are returning after 172 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 47 and 48 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The gantry arms are seen closing around the Soyuz rocket in this long exposure photograph, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 57 crewmembers Nick Hague of NASA and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch on October 11 and will spend the next six months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad, Monday, March 19, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 55 crewmembers Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch at 1:44 p.m. Eastern time (11:44 p.m. Baikonur time) on March 21 and will spend the next five months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 75 crewmembers: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov, and Anna Kikina onboard, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The Soyuz TMA-19M rocket is launched with Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency), Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Malenchenko, Kopra, and Peake will spend the next six-months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Soyuz rocket is launched with Expedition 57 Flight Engineer Nick Hague of NASA and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. During the Soyuz spacecraft's climb to orbit, an anomaly occurred resulting in an abort downrange. The crew was quickly recovered and was reported in good condition. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Expedition 48 NASA astronaut Jeff Williams is helped out of the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft just minutes after he and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016(Kazakh time). Williams, Ovchinin, and Skripochka are returning after 172 days in space where they served as members of the Expedition 47 and 48 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The service structure arms are seen being lowered less than an hour before the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft launched to the International Space Station with Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) onboard, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) will spend the next six-months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 47 crew members Tim Kopra of NASA, Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Saturday, June 18, 2016. Kopra, Peake, and Malenchenko are returning after six months in space where they served as members of the Expedition 46 and 47 crews onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Russian Search and Rescue All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) are seen as they transport Expedition 38 Commander Oleg Kotov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, and Flight Engineers: Mike Hopkins of NASA, and, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos, from the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft landing site to their helicopters near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. Hopkins, Kotov and Ryazanskiy returned to Earth after five and a half months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 37 and 38 crews. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

nhq202104060006 (April 6, 2021) --- The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad at Site 31, Tuesday, April 6, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg are seen in the crew access arm as fellow crewmates Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi are seen on the fixed service structure of Launch Complex 39A before boarding SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket before the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station, Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Bowen, Hoburg, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, and UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi launched at 12:34 a.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission aboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina onboard, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission is the fifth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikini launched at 12:00 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad at Site 31, Tuesday, April 6, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The moon, or supermoon, is seen rising behind the Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan the morning of November 18 (Kazakh time.) All three will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex. A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest (perigee) to Earth. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 62 crew members Jessica Meir and Drew Morgan of NASA, and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos, Friday, April 17, 2020. Meir and Skripochka returned after 205 days in space, and Morgan after 272 days in space. All three served as Expedition 60-61-62 crew members onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)

A Soyuz booster rocket launches the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, Baikonur time, carrying Expedition 58 Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Anne McClain of NASA, and Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) into orbit to begin their six and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev onboard, Thursday, March 2, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Bowen, Hoburg, Alneyadi, and Fedyaev launched at 12:34 a.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission aboard the orbital outpost. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad, Monday, Sept. 23, 2019 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 61 crewmembers Jessica Meir of NASA and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos, and spaceflight participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori of the United Arab Emirates will launch September 25th on the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos is helped out of the Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft just minutes after he and Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 (Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko completed an International Space Station record year-long mission to collect valuable data on the effect of long duration weightlessness on the human body that will be used to formulate a human mission to Mars. Volkov returned after spending six months on the station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

A mosaic sign welcoming visitors is seen outside the town of Baikonur, Kazakhstan, Monday, March 11, 2019 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Expedition 59 crewmembers Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA, along with Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, will launch March 14, U.S. time, on the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a six-and-a-half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

iss065e085003 (June 2, 2021) --- Expedition 65 Flight Engineer and Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov is pictured during a seven-hour and 19-minute spacewalk to ready the Pirs docking compartment ahead of its upcoming departure. The Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, being launched soon from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will replace Pirs on the Zvezda service module's Earth-facing port.

iss046e020118 (01-22-2016) --- One-year mission crew members Scott Kelly of NASA (left) and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos (right) celebrated their 300th consecutive day in space on Jan. 21, 2016. The pair will spend a total of 340 days aboard the International Space Station as scientists seek to understand what happens to the human body while in microgravity for extreme lengths of time.

The Soyuz MS-09 rocket is launched with Expedition 56 Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, flight engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, and flight engineer Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Prokopyev, Auñón-Chancellor, and Gerst will spend the next six months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The service structure arms are seen being lowered less than an hour before the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft launched to the International Space Station with Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) onboard, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) will spend the next six-months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

jsc2016e077222 (06/25/2016) --- In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 48-49 crewmembers Kate Rubins of NASA (left), Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos (center) and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (right) pose for pictures June 25 in front of the Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft during a "fit check" dress rehearsal activity. The trio will launch on July 7, Baikonur time, on the Soyuz MS-01 for a planned four-month mission on the International Space Station...NASA/Alexander Vysotsky.

iss074e0813893 (July 14, 2026) --- From left, Expedition 74 flight engineer Jessica Meir of NASA smiles after welcoming Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina and NASA astronaut Anil Menon aboard the International Space Station following their docking to the Prichal module inside the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft with Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov (out of frame). Credit: NASA/Chris Williams

nhq202010220018 (Oct. 22, 2020) --- Expedition 63 Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner is helped out of the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft just minutes after he, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, October 22, 2020, Kazakh time (Oct. 21 Eastern time). Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner returned after 196 days in space having served as Expedition 62-63 crew members onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Denis Derevtsov)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A during a brief static fire test ahead of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are scheduled to launch at 1:45 a.m. EST on Feb. 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Soyuz MS-17 rocket is launched with Expedition 64 Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov, and Rubins launched at 1:45 a.m. EDT to begin a six-month mission onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)

The Soyuz MS-18 rocket is launched with Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, Friday, April 9, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The Space Station Training Mockup Facility at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) is seen as Expedition 47 crew members: NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexei Ovchinin of Roscosmos take their final qualification exams, Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, at GCTC in Star City, Russia. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Dragon spacecraft on top is seen illuminated by spotlights on the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A as preparations continue for the Crew-6 mission, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission is the sixth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren "Woody" Hoburg, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev are scheduled to launch at 1:45 a.m. EST on Feb. 27, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

A fox walks around the Soyuz launch pad at site 31, Thursday, April 8, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

The Soyuz MS-07 rocket is launched with Expedition 54 Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Scott Tingle of NASA, and flight engineer Norishige Kanai of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Shkaplerov, Tingle, and Kanai will spend the next five months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

The Soyuz MS-17 rocket is launched with Expedition 64 Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov, and Rubins launched at 1:45 a.m. EDT to begin a six-month mission onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Andrey Shelepin)

nhq202010220005 (Oct. 22, 2020) --- The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft is seen as it lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 63 crew members Chris Cassidy of NASA, and Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos, Thursday, October 22, 2020, Kazakh time (Oct. 21 Eastern time). Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner returned after 196 days in space having served as Expedition 62-63 crew members onboard the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/GCTC/Denis Derevtsov)