The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is considering the possibility of obtaining an additional seat for an American astronaut on the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz. This is stated in a statement by NASA, quoted by TASS.
So, the United States is considering buying a seat in the upcoming spring Soyuz mission to replace crew members at the International Space Station (ISS), which will leave this spring. “The additional seat on the Soyuz provides the ability to support at least one US crew member aboard the ISS in case of problems with any of the [US] spacecraft,” the document says.
For the first time, RIA Novosti sources in the rocket and space industry told about such an opportunity in December 2020. A possible candidate for the Soyuz seat was NASA astronaut Mark Wande Hai. He recently trained with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Petr Dubrov.
In September, it was reported that NASA refused to purchase a seat on Soyuz MS, which would be used in the spring of 2021 to send an American astronaut to the ISS.
In May, a heavy rocket Falcon 9 was launched with the Crew Dragon spacecraft with American astronauts on board to the ISS. The previous time the United States independently delivered people to low-earth orbit on July 8, 2011, when the Space Shuttle Atlantis reusable manned spacecraft took off. After that, the US used Russian Soyuz-series spacecraft to send people to the ISS.