Russian cosmonauts in the United States are being trained to fly on the Crew Dragon ship. This was announced on December 20 by the head of the NASA program at the International Space Station (ISS) Joel Montalbano.
"We have already trained astronauts at the Hawthorn Center. Now we have an astronaut training. The plan is to complete these trainings so that this person will then return in late January - early February," he said, answering a question about the preparation of astronauts for flights, Interfax reports.
Earlier, on December 8, Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of the Roscosmos State Corporation, announced that Anna Kikina, an astronaut from Russia, will fly on the American Crew Dragon ship in 2022. He added that the relevant decision has already been made. In turn, an American astronaut will fly on the Russian ship.
Prior to that, on November 12, Crew Dragon Endurance with the Crew-3 mission on board docked to the ISS. American astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Mathias Maurer were on board the spacecraft. It was noted that the astronauts will embark on a six-month mission, living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future exploration of the Moon and Mars.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 mission launched on November 11 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
