Tracy Dyson

MS-25 landing in Kazakhstan earlier this morning.
Video: via NASA Livestream

NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson has returned to Earth from the International Space Station. She orbited Earth 2,944 times and traveled approximately 78 million miles during her 184 days in space.

Dyson was accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, who concluded their record-breaking stay aboard the orbiting outpost. They both spent 374 days in low-Earth orbit on ISS, making that the longest time anybody has ever stayed on the station in a continuous stint. That breaks NASA astronaut Frank Rubio’s 371 day record, but Rubio maintains the longest record aboard ISS for a NASA astronaut.

NASA Astronaut Tracy Dyson looks down on Earth while she was aboard ISS.
Photo: NASA

The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft launched March 23, and arrived at the station March 25, with Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya were aboard the station for 12 days before returning home with NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on April 6.

According to NASA, following post-landing medical checks, the crew will return to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Dyson will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Soyuz MS-25 docked to ISS with an aurora in the background.
Photo: Matthew Dominick, NASA (via X.com)
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Yesterday’s planned launch of Soyuz M-25 to the International Space Station was aborted with twenty seconds left in the countdown. NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus are fine, and were evacuated from the Soyuz capsule shortly afterwards.

According to state-owned Russian domestic news agency RIA Novosti, the launch was canceled due to a voltage drawdown of a chemical power source.

“All preparations for liftoff on March 21 went without a hitch until around L-20-second mark when the Emergency Engine Cutoff, AVD, command interrupted the final countdown. At that moment, the launch control had already issued the “Pusk” (launch) command (normally issued at L-19 seconds), however, one umbilical mast, VKM (from the Russian Verkhnyaya Kabel Machta), located above the surface of the pad, remained connected to the rocket, with its nominal retraction usually taking place at L-15 seconds in the countdown.”

Anatoly Zak, Russian Space Web

Russian space reporter Katya Pavlushchenko posted later on the X platform that this launch was “the first time ever when a crewed Soyuz launch was aborted a few minutes before launch. If it happened before, it was a day before launch during the standard checks.”

Soyuz MS-25 crew members: (L-R) Tracy C. Dyson, Oleg Novitskiy, and Marina Vasilevskaya.
Photo: Credits: GCTC/Andrey Shelepin

The launch has been postponed to March 23, at 7:36 AM EDT.  Coverage of launch and docking activities will air live on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.

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