NASA Veteran Joins Russian Cosmonauts for April Soyuz Flight to the ISS

NASA veteran astronaut Mark Vande Hei will be joining two Russian cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for the upcoming ISS mission, set for an April 9 launch.

Vande Hei will be joining Russian spacemen Olegy Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov as the flight engineer, with the three being members of the ISS Expedition 64/ 65 crew. The upcoming flight is a collaborative effort between the Houston-based space infrastructure developer Axiom Space, NASA, and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

About the ISS Expedition 64/65

A Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft will be used, launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Marking the 146th crewed Soyuz flight, Novitskiy will serve as the Mission Commander, and Dubrov will be the Flight Engineer 1.

In a Roscosmos press release, dated March 9, it announced the change in the lineup to include Mark Vande Hei - taking the place of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Korsakov - in the main flight. The request also included NASA astronaut Anne McClain to replace Dimitriy Petelin in the backup crew. In the press release, Roscosmos explains that the change was done "at the urgent request of the American side." Since NASA expressed its desire to add American astronauts to the upcoming flight at the end of 2020, the Russians had to adjust its original lineup.

"Roscosmos agrees to this decision, reaffirming its commitment to joint agreements and the spirit of joint use of the International Space Station," the statement read.

Upon their landing at the International Space Station, Vande Hei will be working on various experiments for the benefit of life on Earth and in space. NASA announced in a statement that among the projects members of Expedition 65 would work on include studies on Alzheimer's disease, cotton root systems, and a demonstration of the Butterfly IQ Ultrasound - a portable device that is used together with a mobile computing device in space.

Additionally, the Expedition 15 crew - with their April 2021 arrival - will also work on the expansion of the Russian orbital segment of the International Space Station. In July 2021, the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, commonly known as Nauka, is set to arrive and dock at the ISS. Later in the year, the Russian segment also expects the arrival of the UM Prichal module.

Vande Hei: Back In Space

According to the NASA release, Vande Hei was first chosen as an astronaut back in 2009, completing his first spaceflight mission as a part of Expedition 53/ 54 back in 2018. Since he launched as a crew member on September 13, 2017, Vande Hei has spent 168 days in space - including four spacewalks with a total of 26 hours and 42 minutes - before returning to Earth on February 28, 2018.

The Virginia-born spaceman was raised in New Jersey and Minnesota and is a retired colonel in the US Army. He completed his bachelor's degree in Physics from Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, before completing a master's degree program in applied physics from Stanford University. Aside from his military career, Mark Vande Hei also served as an assistant professor of physics at the United States Military Academy at West Point starting in 1999, before he was chosen as a NASA astronaut.