WASHINGTON – NASA astronauts flying to the International Space Station in April could spend up to a year on the station, an extended investment that it said was “enthusiastic.”
NASA announced on March 9 that Mark Vande Hay Soyuz will go to the space station on the MS-18 mission, starting April 9. It will fly with Roscosmos Cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov.
In typical mission scenario, the trio will remain at the station for six months, with the crew returning after arriving on the Soyuz MS-19 in October. However, Rozkosmos officials discussed the shooting of the film at the station in October, with director Anton Schaplerov sent director Klem Shipenko and an actress to be selected during an ongoing competition on the Soyuz MS-19. Shipenko and actress Soyuz will return on MS-18 with mission commander Novitsky, while Dubrov and Vande Hane were required to remain at the station until the end of April 2022 when the next Soyuz crew rotation mission begins.
In a March 15 interview with reporters, Vande Hai admitted that he could stay at the station for more than six months. “It all depends on whether those tourists go on the spacecraft in the fall, as they will take my seat back.”
He said he welcomes the opportunity to stay extended on the ISS. “Honestly, for me it’s an opportunity for a new life experience. I haven’t been in space for more than six months, “he said, referring to his first mission to the ISS, which ran from September 2017 to February 2018.” I’m really excited for her. “
That indefinite period is not the only unusual aspect about the mission. NASA did not acquire the seat directly from Roscosmos as it has in the past, but instead through an exchange with commercial spaceflight company Axiom Space, which acquired the seat from Roscosmos in the deal, the terms of which have not been disclosed by Roscosmos or Axiom. Axiom will get a seat on NASA’s commercial crew mission to the ISS in 2023 in exchange for the Soyuz seat.
Vande Hai said he was not involved in the negotiations for the meeting. “I am sure it was a very complex and challenging task. I know it took a lot of effort to make it happen, “he said. “I’m really happy with the way I did it, and I’m so glad I didn’t have to deal with all these details.”
Vande Hay started training last year as a backup for NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, who went to the station on the Soyuz MS-17 mission in October last year, after which Soyuz MS-18 training “flowed to the right”. “The only thing that was uncertain was whether I would actually start as a result of training.”
Rozkosmos originally announced that Sergei Korsakov would go on the Sovis MS-18 with Novitsky and Dubrov. Vande Hai trained with those three for months, he said, knowing that only three of the four would fly. “We were prepared for any contingency,” he said.
Because of that uncertainty, he said he is managing his expectations about whether he will launch. “I was trying to be very emotional and not too excited about the fact that I could present in April,” he said. “It was only then that I realized that I was really excited when I really reached the finals.”
Rozkosmos Soyuz went on to create two versions of the MS-18 mission patch, one named Vande Hei – in a photo of training activities by Novitsky and Dubrov in February – and one with Korskov’s name. In Kamareddy’s performance, Vande Haye said that he wore the version of the patch with Korskov’s name while Korskov wore the patch with Vande Hena’s name. “I will always consider him a part of our team,” he said of Korsakov.
Russian media have reported that after finalizing an agreement on the exchange of seats between Soyuz and commercial crew vehicles, Rozkosmos is considering handing over the future crew to Korskov for a dragon mission.
