Two NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hai and Ann McClain at the Moscow Cosmonaut Training Center prepare for a flight to the International Space Station (ISS). This was announced on Wednesday, February 10, RIA Novosti reports, citing sources in the rocket and space industry.
As specified, the astronauts will go to the ISS on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on April 9. Among the crew members are also Russians-Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov.
"Vande Hai and his understudy McClain are already being trained at the Soyuz MS-18 Cosmonaut Training Center," the source said.
The information was confirmed by another source, stressing that the American astronauts began training in January.
The third interlocutor of the agency specified that the astronauts visited the Zvezda enterprise, which creates spacesuits and seats for the Soyuz spacecraft. It is emphasized that Vande Haye has his own equipment, and a spacesuit and a bed for a chair for McClain are made.
Currently working on the ISS are Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, American astronauts Kathleen Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as Japanese Soichi Noguchi.
On February 9, NASA announced that they are considering the possibility of obtaining an additional seat for their astronaut in the upcoming spring Soyuz mission to change the crew. The decision is due to the fact that in the event of problems with the launches of SpaceX Crew-2 and Boeing Starliner, at least one US crew member will remain on the ISS.
The life of the ISS is about to expire in 2024. Earlier, it was repeatedly reported about the possible extension of the station's operation until 2028 or 2030. On January 2, it became known that a decision on the fate of the station is planned to be made in the first quarter of 2021.
