Crew of Russian Segment of ISS to Grow to 3 From Current 2 in 2020 - Roscosmos

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2019) The crew of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) will grow to three people from the current two in 2020, Sergey Krikalev, the director for manned spaceflights at Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos, said in an interview with Sputnik.

The Russian crew at the ISS was reduced to two people from three in April 2017. Roscosmos explained that the cut was part of its plans to improve the operational efficiency ahead of the installation of a new module to expand the Russian segment of the ISS.

"Currently, the crew of each Soyuz includes one [Russian] person, but starting from the next year it will include two.

We will switch to three cosmonauts at a certain point. When we have two crew members aboard Soyuz, we will be able to begin the switch to three cosmonauts in the beginning of the next year, if a certain shift change schedule is applied. But this will not be done immediately, of course, this will take time," Krikalev said.

He specified that the increase in crew numbers would be linked to the launch of the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) Nauka (Science) to the ISS. The MLM Nauka's launch is currently planned for June 2020.

The MLM is designed for carrying out scientific work, storing cargoes and docking spaceships and research modules.