Futurism by Victor Tangermann 4/26/2022
It would be the first time a cosmonaut flies on board a Crew Dragon shuttle.NASA is still deciding on whether to take a Russian cosmonaut along for the ride on a SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station later this year.
During a press conference about Crew-4, this week’s mission to the space station, SpaceNews editor Jeff Foust inquired if a decision had been made on whether a cosmonaut would round out the crew of five astronauts, given the tense geopolitical standoff between Russia and much of the rest of the world.
NASA’s ISS manager Joel Montalbano replied that the agency will likely have an answer by “mid to late June,” according to Foust.
It’s a pivotal decision, as Crew-5 could mark the first time a Russian cosmonaut travels to the ISS on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon. But whether it will actually happen remains very unclear. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven a deep wedge between its space agency and the West, with several major deep space missions being put on hold as a direct result.
Roscosmos and NASA have been collaborating on sending astronauts into space since the early 1990s. The first time a Russian cosmonaut traveled on board NASA’s Space Shuttle was in 1994, as part of the Shuttle-Mir program, which was designed to enable longer stays on board the Mir, Russia’s space station.
More:
https://futurism.com/nasa-deciding-cosmonaut-spacex-launch
