Russia has confirmed it will launch the crewed Soyuz MS-29 mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in July, Bloomberg reported on May 28, marking the first crewed launch from the site since a structural accident grounded it in late 2025. The mission is scheduled for no earlier than July 14, carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov (commander) and Anna Kikina, alongside NASA astronaut Anil Menon, to the International Space Station for a stay of approximately 240 days through March 2027. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has confirmed he plans to attend the launch in person at Baikonur — part of a broader schedule of meetings with ISS partner agency heads — and the US-Russia seat-exchange cross-flight program, under which NASA astronauts fly on Soyuz and Russian cosmonauts on Crew Dragon, was extended for a fourth time in April. Site 31/6 at Baikonur — Russia’s only launch complex certified for crewed ISS missions — was badly damaged on November 27, 2025, when a mobile maintenance cabin collapsed into the flame trench during the Soyuz MS-28 launch. The crew aboard that flight, cosmonauts Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev and NASA’s Christopher Williams, reached the ISS safely, but Russia was left unable to launch either crews or cargo for several months.
Roscosmos completed repairs to Site 31/6 in early March 2026, and the facility successfully hosted its first post-accident launch — the Progress MS-34 cargo resupply mission — on March 22, satisfying the requirement under Russian safety rules for at least one uncrewed flight before a crewed mission can proceed. A second cargo launch followed on April 25, further validating the restored pad. The Soyuz MS-28 crew currently aboard the ISS is scheduled to undock and return to Earth on July 26, meaning the two crews will overlap briefly on the station. The resumed crewed launch schedule comes as the ISS approaches its planned decommissioning in the late 2020s, with US and Russian partners continuing to negotiate the pace of the station’s wind-down and successor plans.