A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday, sending the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut into near-Earth orbit.

The spacecraft lifted off at 12:28 p.m. Moscow time (0928 GMT). It is expected to complete two orbits of the Earth and dock with the International Space Station (ISS) in approximately 3 hours and 10 minutes.

It is expected that in a few hours, the spacecraft's crew will open the hatches and board the ISS.

For the first time, the crew's work on the ISS will integrate the GigaChat neural network, a large-scale generative AI model developed by Russia's largest bank, Sberbank.

According to Albert Efimov, vice president of Sberbank, the system will help generate reports, manage databases, and ease the crew's routine tasks.

The crew's ISS mission is scheduled to last 242 days. During this period, more than 40 experiments will be conducted under the Russian program, with two spacewalks planned for April and June 2026.

The first spacewalk will focus on installing the Sun-Terahertz instrument, designed to enhance the forecasting of solar flares.

The crew will perform maintenance on the Zarya module during the second spacewalk and replace components that have reached the end of their service life.

Direct descendants of the fruit flies that flew aboard the Bion-M No.2 biosatellite will also be sent to space as part of the mission.