After nearly a decade of development, Russia’s newest launch vehicle is close to its debut flight. The medium-lift Soyuz 5 rocket is expected to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome before the end of the year.

A Soyuz spacecraft delivered two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the International Space Station Nov. 27 for an eight-month stay.

Soyuz MS-28’s commander is Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov. Born in August 1983 in Soviet Kazakhstan, Kud-Sverchkov made his second flight to the Station on Soyuz MS-28 after serving as a flight engineer on Soyuz MS-17 in 2020.

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket carrying the NASA astronaut and two cosmonauts will launch the Soyuz MS-28 mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, about 1,300 miles (2,100 km) southeast of Moscow on Thursday.

HOUSTON—Northrop Grumman’s initial Cygnus XL resupply capsule for the International Space Station (ISS) has been temporarily unberthed from the orbital lab’s U.S. segment to provide clearance for the scheduled Nov. 27 automated rendezvous and docking of Russia’s crewed Soyuz MS-28 capsule. Ground...