The departure
Tuesday morning. Dust rising from Kazakhstan. The Soyuz spacecraft lifted off Baikonur with three humans on board. NASA’s Anil Menon flew for the first time. He’s new to this. Pyotr Dubrov and Anna KikINA? Veterans. They’ve been there twice now. They know the routine. Menon probably felt the g-forces pressing him into the seat like a giant hand. That sensation never gets easier, does it?
They’re headed straight for the International Space Station. It waits up there, silent and humming with recycled air. The mission lasts roughly eight months. Long enough to get lonely, short enough to not lose your mind. At least, that’s the plan. They won’t see Earth from a distance again until April 2027.
What comes next
Eight months is a blink in geological time but an eternity for your knees.
Menon steps into a tiny metal capsule and suddenly becomes a regular spacefarer. Dubrov and Kikina return to their office above the clouds. It’s business as usual up there. Science, exercise, looking out the window while everything else looks down on you. No big announcements yet. Just the steady beat of life in orbit. We’ll check in again later. Until then, they float.
