TITUSVILLE (Florida) (Pakistan Point news / Sputnik - 04th October, 2022) NASA is fully staffed in Russia and does not expect any impact on the upcoming Soyuz launch next year, Joel Montalbano, manager, International Space Station, said in a press briefing on Monday.
When asked about the current number of NASA staff in Russia amid the latest warning by the embassy for the Americans to leave Russia and and if the ongoing situation may have an effect on the next Soyuz launch, Montalbano said, "Right now we are fully staffed over in the Moscow area. We have staff at the Star City facility, we have staff at mission control center Moscow, and we have a satellite office in Moscow city."
He stressed that they are working closely with the embassy and keep status on what's going on.
"The Embassy is fully aware of our operations and we work with them. When we were over in Moscow just a couple of weeks ago, we did talk with the acting ambassador there and made sure we're all in sync with what the operations are," Montalbano said. "So at this time I'm not expecting any impacts to the upcoming to the next Soyuz launch in the spring of next year. We have the staff that we need and we continue to operate and work under the embassy guidance there. "
