The flight crew of Expedition 64 to the International Space Station (ISS) will not be vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of their October 14 liftoff, Commander Sergey Ryzhikov said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2020) The flight crew of Expedition 64 to the International Space Station (ISS) will not be vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of their October 14 liftoff, Commander Sergey Ryzhikov said on Thursday.
"The International Space Station is now the safest place on the planet or in the near-planetary sphere. We do not need to get vaccinated, because we strictly follow all sanitary precautions and we have a large support team that provides them reliably," Ryzhikov said at a news conference in Moscow.
His colleague, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, added that the decision on whether or not to take the vaccine was not the astronauts' own to make.
"The health of an astronaut is not only his personal health ... an astronaut is a person who fulfills a government task and his health is a priority. As soon as a vaccine is tested and proven to be reliable, then a decision will be made on the recommendation of vaccination for astronauts," Kud-Sverchkov said.
The crew, which also includes US Astronaut Kathleen Rubins, is set to replace the current expedition on the ISS and remain in orbit until April 2021. According to NASA, the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle is set to break the speed record from the launch pad to the station at three hours and five minutes.
