Astronaut Replacement Crew Set to Launch to ISS on Friday

A new crew consisting of NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub is set to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday to replace three astronauts who were forced to carry out a year-long mission after their spacecraft suffered catastrophic damage. The previous crew, including US astronaut Frank Rubio, spent a record-setting 371 days in space due to a damaged Soyuz spacecraft. The replacement crew will spend varying durations on the ISS, with Kononenko and Chub staying for a year and O'Hara for six months.