NASA moves to buy more Soyuz seats for late 2019, early 2020

Enlarge / The Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft is seen in this false-color infrared image as it launched with Expedition 57 Flight Engineer Nick Hague of NASA and Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, on Thursday, October 11, 2018. (credit: NASA)

While NASA's commercial crew program continues to demonstrate progress-the first test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon may occur as soon as March 2-there are no guarantees the vehicles will be ready for operational flights to the International Space Station by early 2020.

NASA's last contracted flight with Russia is for a mission set to launch in July. The Soyuz MS-13 vehicle will carry cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov, NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano for a six- or seven-month stay on the International Space Station. After this, NASA would be at risk of having no more of its people on the orbiting laboratory.

The agency's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel warned the agency last year that due to potential delays in the commercial crew program, NASA should look into buying more Soyuz seats from Russia. "Senior NASA leadership should work with the Administration and the Congress to guarantee continuing access to ISS for US crew members until such time that US capability to deliver crew to ISS is established," the safety panel recommended.

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