{"id":12108,"date":"2020-11-15T21:28:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T13:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-officials-hope-to-fly-russian-cosmonaut-on-crew-dragon-next-year\/"},"modified":"2020-11-15T21:28:31","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T13:28:31","slug":"nasa-officials-hope-to-fly-russian-cosmonaut-on-crew-dragon-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-officials-hope-to-fly-russian-cosmonaut-on-crew-dragon-next-year\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA officials hope to fly Russian cosmonaut on Crew Dragon next year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft descends to a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan on Oct. 22. Credit: NASA\/GCTC\/Denis Derevtsov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA has submitted a draft agreement for government approval that would allow Russian cosmonauts to begin flying to the International Space Station on U.S. crew capsules next year in a no-funds exchanged arrangement with Russia\u2019s space agency.<\/p>\n

In return, Russia will continue launching U.S. and international astronauts on Soyuz missions.<\/p>\n

But NASA will no longer be sending cash payments to the Russian government for the Soyuz seats. Instead, NASA will provide Russian cosmonauts with rides on SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing Starliner spaceships.<\/p>\n

Kathy Lueders, head of NASA\u2019s human spaceflight directorate, said Thursday that the space agency has submitted an \u201cimplementing agreement\u201d to the U.S. State Department for review and approval. The agreement would then go through a similar process in the Russian government for approval.<\/p>\n

The deal would allow the U.S. and Russian space agencies \u201cto fly at least one crew member on each one of our vehicles,\u201d Lueders said in an interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cSo we\u2019ll be following along, working through that process and getting that agreement approved on our side, and then also then after we approve it, it will go over to the Russians for their approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian officials have said they are not assigning cosmonauts to missions on U.S. vehicles until they are flight-proven. After a successful Crew Dragon test flight with two astronauts earlier this year, NASA formally certified the SpaceX capsule and Falcon 9 rocket for operational crew missions during a two-day Flight Readiness Review that concluded Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The readiness review cleared the way for launch of the first of at least six regular crew rotation flights to the space station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission, known as Crew-1, is set for launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday at 7:27 p.m. EST (0027 GMT Monday) with commander Mike Hopkins, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Shannon Walker, and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.<\/p>\n

The four astronauts will kick off an expedition lasting nearly six months, joining NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov on the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

\"\"
SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft stands on top of a Falcon 9 rocket on pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Crew-2 mission is tentatively slated to launch March 30 from the Florida spaceport, beginning another expedition lasting roughly six months. A follow-on mission, Crew-3, is scheduled to launch in September 2021 with four more astronauts.<\/p>\n

One of those four crew members on the Crew-3 mission will be a Russian cosmonaut, assuming the U.S. and Russian governments can finalize the agreement in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping we would be able to have something in place by the spring timeframe, but I think probably it\u2019ll be more likely in the late summer timeframe, around the Crew-3 timeframe,\u201d Lueders said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re shooting for right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lueders said Russian officials are looking for \u201cmultiple flights\u201d of the Crew Dragon and Starliner before clearing cosmonauts to fly the new crew capsules.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really looking for how do you get multiple flights (of) experience, which we understand, to be able to show the same level of safety for their crew members (as Soyuz),\u201d Lueders said.\u201d But we\u2019re hoping that these flights go well, and we can get the implementing agreement in place, and then we\u2019ll be in the best long-term posture with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the intergovernmental agreement is in place next year, an astronaut from NASA or one of the space station\u2019s other international partners \u2014 Japan, Europe, or Canada \u2014 would take one of the three seats on a Soyuz mission launching from Kazakhstan in late 2021, Lueders said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd from there on, we would be (in a position) where every time there\u2019s a flight, you\u2019d have somebody from the other segment on that flight,\u201d Lueders said.<\/p>\n

A Soyuz flight set for launch in April will carry an all-Russian crew to the space station.<\/p>\n

Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft is not expected to begin regular crew rotation flights to the space station until late 2021, at the earliest. If NASA can sign an agreement with Roscosmos \u2014 Russia\u2019s space agency \u2014 next year, it\u2019s likely that cosmonauts will fly first on SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon.<\/p>\n

\"\"
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy gives a thumbs-up after being helped out of the Russian Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft Oct. 22 on the steppe of Kazakhstan. Credit: NASA\/GCTC\/Denis Derevtsov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The agreement will help ensure there is always a crew member on-board the space station to operate the outpost\u2019s Russian section and U.S. Operating Segment, or USOS, which includes U.S., Japanese, European, and Canadian hardware. If Russia\u2019s Soyuz program or the U.S. crew vehicles are grounded, crew members from the other international partners will still be able to fly to the space station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like this is the best technical stance to support the vehicle, when you always have a crew member from the other segment on your vehicle and make sure that you always have somebody up there to operate the other segment if there\u2019s a problem,\u201d Lueders said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a really solid logistics stance for us to be in, so we would like to get there as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA has paid the Russian government approximately $3.9 billion since 2006 to purchase Soyuz seats for astronauts from the United States and the station\u2019s other international partners, according to a report last year by NASA\u2019s inspector general.<\/p>\n

The Soyuz spacecraft was the only vehicle capable of ferrying crews to and from the space station from the last space shuttle mission in 2011 until the Crew Dragon\u2019s piloted test flight, which launched in May.<\/p>\n

Flush with NASA money, Russian space contractors doubled the production of Soyuz crew capsules for launches beginning in 2009 to meet the demand for astronaut transportation to the space station. After NASA\u2019s previous bulk purchase of Soyuz seats in 2017 expired this year, Russian officials cut back the Soyuz flight rate to two flights this year.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, NASA paid Russia more than $90 million for one additional Soyuz round-trip ticket to ensure the U.S. side of the space station remain staffed in the event of further delays with the Crew Dragon and Starliner spaceships. NASA assigned Rubins to that seat, and she launched Oct. 14 on the Soyuz MS-16 mission with Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s inspector general reported last year the agency is paying an average of around $55 million per round-trip seat on SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Boeing\u2019s price is around $90 million per seat.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft descends to a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan on Oct. 22. Credit: NASA\/GCTC\/Denis Derevtsov NASA has submitted a draft agreement for government approval that would allow Russian cosmonauts to begin flying to the International Space Station on U.S. crew capsules next year in a no-funds exchanged arrangement with Russia\u2019s space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[524,291,235,1768,1545,717,1834,25],"class_list":["post-12108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-crew","tag-commercial-space","tag-crew-dragon","tag-crew-3","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-kathy-lueders","tag-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}