An unusual arrangement involving NASA, the Russian space agency and a commercial intermediary will see an American astronaut flying to the ISS in a cashless exchange designed to maintain a tradition that dates back more than 20 years.
NASA normally pays about $ 90.25 million for a seat aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, but the agency is becoming increasingly reluctant to hand over these large sums of money now that its commercial crew program is official From the sun. That being said, NASA paid that exorbitant fee in October last year to transport American astronaut Kate Rubins to the space station, in what was he speculated to be the last time American taxpayers would pay Russia for space travel.
NASA must once again send an astronaut into space to ensure that the agency maintains its commitment to safe operations through a continuous US presence aboard the International Space Station until commercial crew capabilities are routinely available. explain.
Since November 2000, the ISS has hosted at least one American and one Russian at the same time. Wanting to break this tradition and avoid paying Roscosmos the usual flight fee, NASA has a special agreement with the Russian space agency and Axiom space, a commercial company based in Houston, Texas.
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Under the new arrangement, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hey will do just that join the Soyuz MS-18 mission, scheduled to be launched on April 9 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Vande Hey, together with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov will join the crew of the 64/65 Expedition aboard the ISS. In return, Axiom Space will return the favor by offering a place for a Russian cosmonaut at some point in 2023.
The current ISS crew will return to Earth in April and May, and the SpaceX Crew-2 mission is scheduled to be launched on April 22. By launching Vande Hey a little earlier, NASA will “ensure continued presence on the station if crew-2 launching the mission is delayed or an event occurs while crew-2 is in orbit and requires a premature return.” right to the space agency.
NASA has needed Russia to send its astronauts into space since the spacecraft withdrew in 2011. The agency’s commercial crew program is looking for a return to this capability; SpaceX, with CrewDragon, has already delivered, but Boeing’s Starliner has barely passed the schedule and full of problems.
The Soyuz MS-18 was supposed to be a completely Russian deal. This late request and the resulting arrangement meant an interruption of the Russian mission, which means that the Russian cosmonaut Sergei Korsakov became the strange man.
“The change in crew composition came as a result of a serious request from the United States,” right the Roscosmos. “NASA only expressed its request at the end of 2020, which means that the Russian side had to change the already confirmed and approved launch program.” To which the agency added: “Roscosmos took this decision confirming the adherence to the common agreements and the spirit of common use of the International Space Station.”
In February, NASA publicly announced its desire to take a walk aboard the mission and provide “Similar services in kind” instead of sending his usual bank transfer to Roscosmos.
The fact that something was in the works is not a huge surprise, because the training photos of Novitsky and Dubrov showed them wearing a mission patch with the name of Vande Hey on it, as Space Policy Online rEPORTS. NASA astronaut Anne McClain will later replace cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin as a the backup should Vande Hey not be able to join MS-18 for any reason.
As mentioned, the transaction is done through an intermediary, Axiom Space. The US private company is currently building a crew module for the ISS, with plans in the end launches private astronauts to space. Details of the company’s arrangement with both NASA and Roscosmos were not disclosed.
Like Roscosmos, Axiom will be expected to organize transportation to ISS and return to Earth and provide critical mission support services such as training, launch preparation, flight operations, and landing rescue services. As it was established that these services have a “comparable value with both parties”, the contract “does not contain an exchange of funds”. on GODMOTHER. Axiom will probably use a SpaceX CrewDragon for the 2023 mission (the company recently signed an agreement with SpaceX for four launches in 2022).
Of course, this is a strange situation, NASA getting a Soyuz seat through an intermediary and the announcement coming so soon before launch. NASA does not want to pay Roscosmos for this service, but the space agency is not clearly prepared to rely solely on a single private partner. It’s a pickle. Given all this, the unusual arrangement probably does not indicate how things will look ahead. Indeed, Russia has no real incentive to launch American astronauts at zero cost, even if it means a “free” trip aboard an American vehicle.
As for the upcoming MS-18 mission, the arriving crew will replace American astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts. Vande Hey will spend six months aboard the ISS, where he will conduct experiments cotton root systems, Alzheimer’s disease, and a technical demonstration of a portable ultrasound device, in addition to contributing to our understanding of how long-term microgravity conditions affect the human body. Vande Hey is no stranger to space, having already spent 168 days in space as part of the crew of Expedition 53/54, in which he participated from September 2017 to February 2018.