Nauka and Soyuz

A view of the Nauka module with Soyuz spacecraft docked as part of the International Space Station.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took this picture on 28 September 2021, as the Soyuz MS-17 had undocked and moved around the Space Station to its new docking port on Nauka. 

Thomas commented on this photo:

"Another picture of Soyuz and MLM docking. With the long exposure it shows somewhat the speed at which we fly over Earth. Pyotr's port hole is lit up showing that humans are inside and this is not a robotic docking.  It reminds me of a manga! The would-be artist’s touch: I played with some long exposures after the Soyuz crew redocked. I like the feeling of speed given by night clouds! Soyuz port relocation! Oleg, Pyotr and Mark undocked from MRM1, went Station forward to take some pictures, came back Station aft to dock with MLM. First docking with MLM ever!"

Over 200 experiments were run during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.

Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.