An unusual deal involving NASA, the Russian space agency and a commercial intermediary will see an American astronaut fly to the ISS in a cashless exchange designed to preserve a tradition dating back more than 20 years.
Normally, NASA pays about $ 90.25 million for a seat aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, but the agency is becoming increasingly reluctant to deliver such large sums of money now that its commercial crew program is officially off the ground. That said, NASA paid this exorbitant fee last October to transport American astronaut Kate Rubins to the space station, in what was speculated to be the last time U.S. taxpayers would pay Russia for space travel.
NASA must resend an astronaut into space in order to “ensure that the agency maintains its commitment to safe operations through a continued U.S. presence aboard the International Space Station until the capabilities of the spacecraft commercial crew are available on a regular basis, ”as the space agency. explain.
Since November 2000, the ISS has hosted at least one American and one Russian at a time. Not wanting to break this tradition and avoid paying Roscosmos its usual flight fare, NASA has entered into 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 agreement, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will do it join the Soyuz MS-18 mission, scheduled to launch on April 9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Vande Hei, along with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov will join the crew of Expedition 64/65 aboard the ISS. In return, Axiom Space will return the favor by providing a seat for a Russian cosmonaut sometime in 2023.
The current ISS crew will return to Earth in April and May and the SpaceX Crew-2 mission is scheduled for April 22. Launching Vande Hei a little earlier, NASA “will ensure continued presence at the station if the Crew-2 mission launch is delayed or an event occurs while the Crew-2 is in orbit and requires a premature return.” seconds in the space agency.
NASA needs Russia to send its astronauts into space since the Shuttle withdrew in 2011. The agency’s commercial crew program is looking for the return of that capability; SpaceX, with its CrewDragon, has already delivered, but the Boeing Starliner is sadly behind and harassed with problems.
Soyuz MS-18 was supposed to be an all-Russian affair. This late request and the resulting agreement meant an interruption of the Russian mission, meaning that Russian cosmonaut Sergey Korsakov became the strange man.
“The change in crew composition occurred as a result of a serious request by the US,” seconds to Roscosmos. “NASA expressed its request only in late 2020, which means the Russian side had to change the already confirmed and approved launch program.” To this the agency added: “Roscosmos has made this decision confirming its adherence to the joint agreements and the spirit of joint use of the International Space Station.”
In February, NASA publicly announced its desire to launch on board the mission ia provide “Similar in-kind services” instead of sending your usual bank transfer to Roscosmos.
That something was in the works is not a big surprise, as training photos of Novitsky and Dubrov showed them carrying a mission patch with the name Vande Hei, as Space Policy Online reports. NASA astronaut Anne McClain will later replace cosmonaut Dmitry Petelin as the backup in case Vande Hei could not join MS-18 for any reason.
As noted, the deal is being made through an intermediary, Axiom Space. Currently, the American private company is building one crew module for the ISS, with plans to finish launch private astronauts in space. Details of the company’s deal with NASA and Roscosmos have not been released.
Like Roscosmos, Axiom is expected to organize transportation to the ISS and return to Earth and provide critical mission support services such as training, launch preparation, flight operations, and landing rescue services. . Since it was determined that these services had a “comparable value to both parties”, the contract “does not contain any exchange of funds”. per NASA. Axiom will likely use a SpaceX CrewDragon for the 2023 mission (the company recently signed an agreement with SpaceX for four launches in 2022).
This is certainly a strange situation: NASA obtains a Soyuz seat through an intermediary and the announcement will arrive so soon before launch. NASA does not want to pay Roscosmos for this service, although it is clear that the space agency is not prepared to rely solely on a single private partner. It’s a pickle. Given all of this, the unusual disposition is probably not indicative of how things will look going forward. In fact, 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 upcoming crew will replace American astronaut Kate Rubins and two Russian cosmonauts. Vande Hei 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 Hei is no stranger to space, as he has spent 168 days in space as part of the crew of Expedition 53/54, which he attended from September 2017 to February 2018.