{"id":14831,"date":"2017-03-01T17:03:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T09:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-buys-up-to-five-more-seats-on-future-soyuz-missions\/"},"modified":"2017-03-01T17:03:07","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T09:03:07","slug":"nasa-buys-up-to-five-more-seats-on-future-soyuz-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-buys-up-to-five-more-seats-on-future-soyuz-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA buys up to five more seats on future Soyuz missions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A Soyuz spacecraft is pictured docked with the International Space Station in this Feb. 3 image. The Florida peninsula is seen in the background. Credit: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA has purchased two seats on Russian Soyuz capsules launching later this year and in early 2018 to expand the crew on the U.S. segment of the International Space Station from three to four, and reserved options to fly astronauts on Soyuz spacecraft in 2019 if commercial rides are not available in time.<\/p>\n

Using Boeing as an intermediary, the U.S. space agency opted to take advantage of empty Soyuz seats on two flights scheduled for launch from Kazakhstan in September and in March 2018. Russian cosmonauts were originally slated to take the seats, but Russia\u2019s space agency \u2014 Roscosmos \u2014 decided last year to temporarily reduce its crew complement on the station from three to two.<\/p>\n

Boeing received rights to the Soyuz seats from RSC Energia, prime contractor for Russia\u2019s human spaceflight program, in a settlement reached last year to end three years of litigation stemming from payments related to the companies\u2019 former partnership in the Sea Launch program.<\/p>\n

NASA announced in January it might purchase the Soyuz seats from Boeing, which submitted an unsolicited proposal to the agency. NASA and Boeing concluded negotiations in February, resulting in a modification the station program\u2019s Vehicle Sustaining Engineering Contract.<\/p>\n

Boeing is the space station\u2019s prime engineering contractor.<\/p>\n

A Feb. 21 statement posted to NASA\u2019s website confirmed the deal, which is valued at $373.5 million if the agency exercises its option for all five Soyuz seats.<\/p>\n

That works out to $74.7 million per round-trip ticket, down from $81.7 million per seat in NASA\u2019s most recent crew transportation contract, which was negotiated directly with the Russian government in 2015, covering Soyuz launches through 2018 and landings extending into early 2019.<\/p>\n

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European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet is seen inside a Soyuz simulator during preflight training. Credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA has not yet assigned astronauts for the Soyuz flight opportunities later this year and early next year. The crew members will spend up to six months on the space station, returning to Earth on their Soyuz spaceships in early 2018 and late 2018, respectively.<\/p>\n

One or two of the five Soyuz seats \u2014 if NASA buys all of them \u2014 may go to the space station\u2019s other international partners: the European Space Agency, Japan, or Canada. NASA is responsible for arranging transportation for astronauts from those agencies.<\/p>\n

Space station crews are normally divided between three Russian cosmonauts and three crew members based in the U.S. section of the complex. Two of the U.S. segment residents are typically from NASA, and another is from one of the program\u2019s other partners.<\/p>\n

The extra seats on the Soyuz launches this year and next year will boost the U.S. segment\u2019s crew strength to four. The total crew size will remain at six people, with Russia\u2019s complement cut to two.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn additional U.S. crew member provides an approximately 50 percent increase in crew time available for research,\u201d NASA said in a statement. \u201cThis additional time will allow for experiments that currently could not even be attempted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accelerated research program will begin later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking advantage of the opportunity to fly a fourth crew member beginning this year will allow NASA to introduce new or novel human research, commercial and technology experiments,\u201d the space agency said. \u201cThe increased crew presence has the potential to bolster the commercial space market, prepare NASA for human deep space exploration, including to Mars, and deliver more benefits to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Russia launches a long-delayed laboratory module, Roscosmos plans to revert back to its normal three-person crew in late 2018.<\/p>\n

Commercial spaceships in development by Boeing and SpaceX will be able to carry four people at a time. When those capsules begin flying regular crew missions, the space station will host seven people at a time on multi-month expeditions.<\/p>\n

NASA and Roscosmos have agreed to fly one U.S. astronaut on every Soyuz spacecraft and one Russian cosmonaut on every commercial crew mission once Boeing and SpaceX begin crew rotation services. The deal ensures at least one crew member from each nation is on the station at all times, even if one of the crew ferry craft is grounded due to technical issues.<\/p>\n

Boeing and SpaceX say their CST-100 Starliner and Crew Dragon spacecraft will be ready to transport astronauts to the station next year, but a government watchdog agency raised questions about their schedules last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth companies have experienced delays and do not expect to meet their original 2017 certification dates,\u201d the Government Accountability Office wrote in a Feb. 16 report. \u201cIf these delays continue, certification could be pushed into 2019 \u2014 which is when the U.S.\u2019s contract with Russia for ISS transportation ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the new Soyuz seat options in 2019, NASA can decide to buy more astronaut rides if managers are worried about Boeing and SpaceX timetables. In a statement, NASA said it must exercise the options for Soyuz seats in 2019 by this fall.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, NASA is evaluating whether to keep one of two U.S. segment crew members scheduled to return to Earth in June \u2014 either NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson or European Space Agency flight engineer Thomas Pesquet \u2014 aboard the space station until early September, extending their stay in orbit to more than nine months.<\/p>\n

Whitson or Pesquet would have to agree to the change, officials said.<\/p>\n

The next Soyuz spacecraft set for launch April 20 will only have a two-man crew \u2014 veteran Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and first-time NASA space flier Jack Fischer \u2014 and under the current plan, they will be the only residents aboard the station for nearly two months this summer.<\/p>\n

An extension for Whitson or Pesquet would minimize any interruption to scientific research and maintenance on the orbiting outpost during that time.<\/p>\n

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

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

A Soyuz spacecraft is pictured docked with the International Space Station in this Feb. 3 image. The Florida peninsula is seen in the background. Credit: NASA NASA has purchased two seats on Russian Soyuz capsules launching later this year and in early 2018 to expand the crew on the U.S. segment of the International 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":[670,524,1545,717,234,2879,352,470],"class_list":["post-14831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-commercial-crew","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-roscosmos","tag-rsc-energia","tag-russia","tag-sea-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831"}],"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=14831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}