WASHINGTON, September 15NASA has confirmed the participation of American astronaut Tracy Dyson as part of the crew of the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, which will go to the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2024, NASA said Friday.
“Dyson will travel (to the ISS – ed.) aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-25 in March 2024 and will spend about six months aboard the International Station,” NASA said. Together with the American, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Oleg Novitsky and Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya will fly into orbit – they will spend about 12 days in orbit, NASA reported. Dyson’s return to earth is planned for the fall of 2024; it is planned that Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, who launched to the ISS on Friday, September 15, will fly home with her.
The flight of a NASA astronaut on a Russian spacecraft takes place within the framework of the agreement between Roscosmos and NASA on cross-flights. It assumes that the crew of the Russian spacecraft will send one American astronaut to the ISS, and the American crew will include one Russian cosmonaut, so that in case of unforeseen situations, neither the Russian nor the American segments of the station will remain empty.
The first such ship was the Soyuz MS-22 with Frank Rubio in the crew. A couple of weeks later, Russian Anna Kikina went to the ISS on the American Crew Dragon. In March 2023, Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev arrived on the Crew Dragon (mission Crew-6) to the ISS, who has now been replaced by Konstantin Borisov. On Friday, American astronaut Loral O'Hara launched from the Russian Soyuz MS-24 to the ISS.
Also scheduled for 2024 is the flight of Russian Alexander Grebenkin on board the Crew Dragon ship. Previously, both Roscosmos and NASA did not rule out that the program could be extended.
