Earlier, the state corporation reported that cosmonaut Sergei Korsakov was removed from the main crew of the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai was appointed instead
MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/. The flight of NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai on the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz MS-18 does not belong to cross-flights and will be a one-time event. This was stated on Wednesday on the air of the TV channel "Russia-24" by the executive director of Roscosmos for manned space programs Sergey Krikalev.
"There are no talks about the exchange of seats, there are negotiations on cross-flights, but that's another story. We just had a free space, an American company signed a contract with us, buying a place on the Soyuz ship. This is a one-time event, " Krikalev said.
He explained that cross-flights are "a completely different story, not related to the flight on April 9." "But the conversation about cross-flights has been going on for a long time in professional circles. Both sides agree that this will be useful. This is not a purchase or sale of a place, but the distribution of the crew to different ships. This is done so that in the event of delays or accidents of any ship, representatives of both sides will always remain at the station, " said the executive director of Roscosmos for manned programs.
Thus, in case of any delays, there will always be representatives of both sides on board the station. "This is appropriate both from the point of view of reliability and from the point of view of security, but there are still certain legal nuances that we need to resolve both on our and on the American side," he said.
On Wednesday, Roscosmos announced that cosmonaut Sergei Korsakov was removed from the main crew of the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hai was appointed instead. In the backup crew, instead of Dmitry Petelin, NASA astronaut Ann McClain is appointed.
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration said it did not pay for the flight of an American astronaut on April 9 on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, but instead was given a seat on the US spacecraft, which is expected to launch in 2023. In turn, Roscosmos told TASS that Russia and the United States have not yet reached an agreement on cross-flights on Russian Soyuz and American CrewDragon ships. At the same time, it was clarified that the seat in the Soyuz MS was provided to NASA on the basis of a contract signed with its contractor Axiom Space, and its amount is a commercial secret.
