The International Space Station (ISS) crew will have a regular number of members, which is five or six people, in summer 2019 at the earliest after the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle recent failure, a source in the space industry told Sputnik on Thursday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The International Space Station (ISS) crew will have a regular number of members, which is five or six people, in summer 2019 at the earliest after the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle recent failure, a source in the space industry told Sputnik on Thursday.
The ISS crew currently includes three people Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, German astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor. They will have to return to the Earth until the end of the year as the working lifespan of their Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft expires then. When they leave, a crew comprising Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain will arrive at the ISS. They will man the station until April or May when the next expedition starts.
"Only after the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft, which was set to be launched on July 23 [2019] under the previous schedule, will dock at the ISS, the crew size will reach six people again. It also may reach only five people if the Soyuz MS-12 crew comprises two people instead of three for any reason in spring [2019]," the source said.
The Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft was scheduled to be launched on April 5, 2019.
"It is highly likely that the launch of this spacecraft will be rescheduled as well in order to provide an optimal change of ISS crews ... But after the Soyuz MS-12 docks at the ISS, the previous crew will return to the Earth, and the ISS crew will comprise three people until the Soyuz MS-13 arrives," the source said.
The source specified that the Soyuz MS-12 crew might comprise two people instead of three if agreement was reached to conduct a tourist flight for an UAE astronaut in fall 2019. If it is reached, then the Soyuz MS-12 will have one vacant seat when it arrives at the ISS � so that the UAE astronaut can return to the Earth in this spacecraft then.
The source added that it was likely that the Soyuz MS-12 crew would be comprised of Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA astronaut Nick Hague.
On Tuesday, Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said that Ovchinin and Hague, who were on board of the failed Soyuz spacecraft, would fly to the ISS in spring, while the exact date would be specified later.
On October 11, the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle failed to launch the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft toward the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Just minutes after the liftoff, the mission was aborted due to the booster's malfunction. The two-man crew escaped in a rescue capsule and returned on Earth unharmed. Immediately afterward, the Russian side, which had built the booster, launched an investigation into the incident.
