While attempting to obtain crewed flights from SpaceX, NASA and the International Space Station's other partners want to keep Russia in the jointly run complex soaring above Earth-bound tensions.
Before the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, NASA and Roscosmos planned to start "seat swaps" this autumn, with a cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, traveling for the first trip on SpaceX's Crew Dragon ship.
Kikina is currently set to launch in September as part of the "Crew 5" mission, which NASA astronaut Nicole Mann will head. Around the same time, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio would launch on Sergei Prokopyev's Soyuz MS-22 mission.
NASA Still Wants to Work With Russia's Roscosmos on Next SpaceX Mission
According to a NASA source, there is still no official word on whether the switch for the upcoming SpaceX mission will occur. Diplomats in Moscow and Washington, DC, will make the ultimate decision that government agencies should make in the coming weeks.
"Roscosmos needs to get agreement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then they go to their Prime Minister. After that, the agreement comes to the US State Department for approval," The International Space Station (ISS) program manager in Houston, Joel Montalbano, told Ars Technica.
Montalbano said he's looking forward to the seat transfer because it would strengthen the cooperation among the ISS partners, which Russia's invasion of Ukraine has strained. He also thinks it's the correct thing to do because it's happened before with other autos. But they'll have to wait and see.
Sergei Krikalev, a Russian cosmonaut, was the first Russian to travel aboard a US spacecraft when he boarded NASA's space shuttle in 1994. A year later, Norman Thagard, a NASA astronaut, went to the Mir space station aboard a Soyuz rocket.
NASA had to rely on Russia for transportation to the space station when the space shuttle was retired in 2011. Russia kept its half of the agreement by providing reliable transportation, although charging the agency almost $90 million for a seat.
With the launch of Crew Dragon as a fully operational spacecraft, NASA will no longer need Russia for it. However, a seat exchange would be advantageous for reasons other than diplomatic.
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NASA can assure that at least one Western crew member is constantly onboard the station to maintain its portion of the facility, working throughout handovers from one crew to the next by flying astronauts on Russian spacecraft.
American Space Agency to Add More Seats for SpaceX Mission
Meanwhile, as part of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capabilities (CCtCap) contract, NASA plans to issue a sole source amendment to SpaceX to purchase five extra crewed trips to the International Space Station (ISS).
The goal of the US space agency is to maintain a continuous US capacity for human access to the space station.
Before flying crewed flights, NASA certifies that a provider's space transportation system satisfies the agency's standards under the CCtCap contract. The present sole source amendment, according to the agency, does not bar it from requesting future contract modifications for additional transportation services as needed.
In the spring of 2023, SpaceX, which is now NASA's only approved commercial crew transportation contractor, will launch its sixth rotating mission for the agency.
NASA expects to deploy any more SpaceX missions as early as 2026 to assure dissimilar redundancy and safe ISS operations since the agency has extended ISS operations beyond 2030.
According to NASA, additional flights will also give Boeing and SpaceX more time to iron out any unanticipated concerns that may develop as the private sector gains operating expertise with these new systems.
Roscosmos Threatens To Leave International Space Station
Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin threatened to leave International Space Station (ISS) in February since Russia started invading Ukraine. In April, he offered some conditions to restore normal relations with other ISS partners.
Rogozin said they would stop cooperating with the ISS until the sanction imposed on Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine would be entirely and unconditionally lifted. In a series of tweets, Rogozin said the sanction would "kill Russian economy and plunge our people into despair and hunger, to get [the] country on its knees."
The Russian space commander's tweets didn't indicate the ISS program was in jeopardy. It's more about business onboard the orbiting lab.
ISS will expire in 2031. Due to structural fatigue, it will be vacated by 2030 and will be de-orbited the following year.
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