Now, more than three months after the invasion of Ukraine, the actions of Russia, the United States, and other partners of the International Space Station want to keep the jointly operated facility flying beyond the tensions of the Earth. It’s clear.
But one of the biggest open questions is whether astronauts and astronauts will change the way they reach the space station. Before hostilities occurred, NASA and Russia planned to launch the first “seat swap” for astronaut Anna Kikina to fly on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle this fall.
Currently, Kikina is scheduled to be launched in September as part of the “Crew 5” mission under the direction of NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu. Around the same time, NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio was launched on a Soyuz MS-22 mission under the command of Sergei Prokopiev.
But NASA key officials have told Ars that there is still no official word about whether swaps will occur. The decision is left to the diplomats of Moscow and Washington, DC and should be finalized in the coming weeks.
“It’s a process,” said Joel Montalbano, program manager for the Houston-based International Space Station. “Roscosmos needs to get an agreement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then they go to the Prime Minister, after which the agreement comes to the US State Department for approval.”
Montalbano said he is eager for a seat change as it should help solidify the partnership swayed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I’m pushing,” he said. “I think it’s right just because it happened in a similar vehicle, but we have to see.”
Russian astronaut Sergei Krikalev was the first Russian to fly aboard a US spacecraft on the NASA Space Shuttle in 1994. A year later, NASA astronaut Norman Tagard flew to the Mir space station on Soyuz’s vehicle. After the Space Shuttle was abolished in 2011, NASA had to rely on Russia for transportation to the space station. Eventually it charged NASA a seating fee of about $ 90 million, but Russia postponed the end of the negotiations by providing a reliable means of transportation. NASA no longer needs Russia for this, but it is now online as an operational spacecraft for the Crew Dragon.
For reasons beyond diplomacy, changing seats would be beneficial. NASA will always station at least one western crew member to continue operating aspects of the facility during delivery from one crew member to the next by flying astronauts in Russian vehicles. You can put it on.
However, Ukrainian tensions have raised stakes. Does Russia want an optical system that one of its astronauts launches with a US rocket? Also, does the US State Department want similar optics for NASA astronauts to train near Moscow and launch from Russia’s major spaceport in Kazakhstan?
So far, the answer seems certain perhaps.. To that end, Montalbano said training for potential seat changes is ongoing. Kikina was in Houston last week preparing for her next mission. She returned home in mid-June and is expected to work at both SpaceX training facilities in Houston and Hawthorne, California, he said.