The NASA interim administrator said on Tuesday that he does not expect Russian cosmonauts to start launching into the International Space Station with the vehicles of American commercial crews until next year.
A proposed agreement with Russia to ensure that the space station is always equipped with an international crew awaits the approval of the US government. The no-exchange agreement has been under discussion by NASA and Russian space agency officials for years, but the signing of a final agreement has hit obstacles in recent months.
Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s interim administrator, said Tuesday that the preliminary version of an “implementation agreement” between NASA and Roscosmos is still being reviewed by the US State Department.
“We are waiting for the final signatures from the State Department on the implementation agreement and then we will deliver this project to Roscosmos and start negotiations,” Jurczyk told Spaceflight Now in an interview.
He said he believes NASA is close to getting final approval of the text of the agreement by the State Department, but the clock has probably expired for obtaining State Department signatures and finalizing the agreement with the Russian government in time to assign a Russian cosmonaut to a SpaceX mission crew later this year.
Once the agreement is in effect, a Russian cosmonaut should be approved to travel to the United States, manufacture a custom pressure suit developed by SpaceX, and receive basic training on the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
“I think it’s too late now to develop a suit and train for the Crew-3,” Jurczyk said, referring to a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission scheduled for October 23. “So most likely the first mission an astronaut has would be Crew 4.”
The Crew-4 mission is currently scheduled for launch no earlier than the first quarter of 2022.
In November last year, NASA said it had submitted the draft agreement to the State Department for approval. At the time, NASA hoped to conclude the agreement in time to assign a Russian cosmonaut to the Crew-3 mission later this year.
Raja Chari – a former US Air Force fighter pilot – veteran astronaut doctor Tom Marshburn and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer were assigned to the Crew-3 mission. NASA has left the fourth place of the Dragon open for a Russian cosmonaut, but this position is now expected to be held by a crew member from the NASA astronaut corps or another international partner.
Once NASA and Roscosmos sign the final agreement, managers want every American crew that launches to the space station to have a Russian cosmonaut on board. And every launch of a capsule of the Russian Soyuz crew would have an astronaut from the United States or another qualified partner to operate the NASA segment of the space station.
The agreement will help ensure that there is always a crew member on the space station operating the Russian section of the outpost and the US or USOS Operating Segment, which includes hardware from the US, Japan, Europe and Canada. If Russia’s Soyuz program or US crew vehicles are grounded, the crew members of the other international partners will still be able to fly to the space station.
It will also protect against a medical emergency that could force half of the space station crew to leave the outpost early and return to Earth. If a spacecraft should leave the station early, the entire capsule crew should return to Earth to ensure that they are not trapped in orbit without a lifeboat.
This could force all crew members in Russia or the US to evacuate the space station, endangering the critical parts of the ship’s propulsion, life support and control systems.
International astronauts are already flying in SpaceX Crew Dragon missions. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi launched the Crew-1 mission – the first regular Crew Dragon flight – in November and is set to return to Earth next week.
The Crew-2 mission scheduled for launch on Thursday will include Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and French-born mission specialist Thomas Pesquet, the first member of the European Space Agency’s crew to fly the Dragon. They will join NASA Commander Shane Kimbrough and pilot Megan McArthur for half a year on the space station.
NASA relied on the Soyuz spacecraft for all crew transportation to and from the station from the spacecraft’s withdrawal in 2011 until the beginning of SpaceX astronaut launches last year.
NASA has paid the Russian government about $ 4 billion since 2006 to buy Soyuz seats for astronauts in the United States and the station’s other international partners, according to a 2019 report by NASA’s inspector general.
Along with NASA money, Russian space contractors have doubled production of Soyuz crew capsules for launches since 2009 to meet the demand for astronauts to be transported to the space station. After NASA’s previous bulk purchase of Soyuz seats expired in 2017, Russian officials reduced the rate of the Soyuz flight to two flights last year.
The final NASA-acquired Soyuz in Russia was occupied by astronaut Kate Rubins, who launched a Soyuz spacecraft last October and landed with two Russian crew members in Kazakhstan on Saturday.
NASA has arranged another Soyuz seat at the latest launch of the Russian crew on April 9, but has not paid for the trip in cash. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei launched the mission after NASA booked the space with the help of Axiom Space, a Houston-based company that arranges flights for space tourists and plans its own private space station.
In exchange for payment for Vande Hei’s ride, Axiom will get a seat for one of its private customers on a future NASA-sponsored US crew mission.
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