Keith’s note: Yesterday NASA and Roscosmos announced their plan to send up an un-crewed Soyuz MS-23 on 20 February to the ISS to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 currently in orbit. Two cosmonauts and one astronaut will then return home on Soyuz MS-23 while Soyuz MS-22 will eventually be sent back for a destructive re-entry. I was on France 24 [audio] at 3:15 pm EST and on Al Jazeera [audio] at 4:45 pm EST to talk about this today.

Заради аварията на Союз МС-22: съкращават екипажите на следващите американски и руски пилотирани кораби – Keith’s note: An English auto-translation of this article says Soyuz MS-23 will be launched with one crew and then bring cosmonauts Prokopiev and Petelin (currently on ISS) home. The next SpaceX Dragon will be launched with 3 crew – cosmonaut would Fedyaev bumped to a later mission – to bring Rubio home. MS-22 would eventually be deorbited with no crew.

Russia Travel Advisory, State Department “Do not travel to Russia due to the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials, the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19 and related entry restrictions, terrorism, limited flights into and out of Russia, and the arbitrary enforcement of local law. U.S. citizens should depart Russia […]

Russian Film Plans Mean NASA Astronaut Could Spend an Entire Year in Space, Gizmodo “Russian director Klim Shipenko and an actress to be named later might join the Soyuz MS-19 mission, which is scheduled for launch in October, as AP reports. .. Once filming activities are done, Shipenko and his partner, along with Novitskiy, would return home on MS-18, likely within a week. The two seats were meant for Vande […]

NASA Signs Contract to Fly a NASA Astronaut on April Soyuz Rotation to the International Space Station “To ensure continuous U.S. presence aboard the International Space Station, NASA has signed a contract with a U.S. commercial company Axiom Space of Houston to fly a NASA astronaut on an upcoming Soyuz rotation on Soyuz MS-18, scheduled to launch April 9. In exchange, NASA will provide a seat on a future U.S. […]

Letter From House Science Committee Republicans To NASA On Soyuz Flights “NASA’s recent solicitation for “International Space Station Seat Exchange,” indicated that “NASA has no remaining crew seats on Soyuz.” At the January 2018 Committee hearing, the NASA witness testified that “[t]he manufacturing time of a Soyuz of approximately 3 years will not allow additional Soyuz to be manufactured.” Given the information and testimony listed above, it appears that NASA […]

NASA is bargaining with a US space startup for a Soyuz seat, The Verge “NASA is planning to buy an astronaut seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft through Texas-based aerospace firm Axiom Space, according to two people familiar with the plans. It was unclear how much NASA is considering paying Axiom for the single Soyuz seat or what cut Axiom would get from the deal.” Keith’s update: Nice scoop by […]

Keith’s update: NASA just released this statement. After decades of holding an event at Arlington National Cemetery, NASA will not allow the public or media to attend the event at this large, outdoor public location due to COVID concerns. NASA Pays Tribute to Fallen Heroes with Day of Remembrance “Jurczyk will lead an observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, which will begin with a traditional wreath-laying ceremony at the […]

Chris Cassidy, Ivan Vagner, and Anatoly Ivanishin Return To Earth “After 196 days living and working in Earth’s orbit aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy returned from his third space mission Wednesday, Oct. 21, with cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The crew departed the station at 7:32 p.m. EDT Wednesday and landed just south of the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, […]

Soyuz MS-11 Arrives At The International Space Station “The Soyuz carrying Anne McClain of NASA, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, and Oleg Konenenko of Roscosmos launched at 6:31 a.m. EST (5:31 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. McClain, Saint-Jacques and Konenenko docked to the space station’s Poisk module at 12:33 p.m. after a four-orbit, six-hour journey, and opened the hatch between the two spacecraft at […]