The United States may buy a seat on the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft to send an astronaut to the International Space Station in April 2021. This became known to RIA Novosti from three sources in the rocket and space industry.
According to one of the interlocutors, negotiations on this matter are being conducted with a private American company Axiom Space. A possible candidate for the Soyuz seat is NASA astronaut Mark Wande Hai.
It is noted that Wande Hai recently underwent training with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Peter Dubrov. According to the source, the American astronaut may replace the third member of the Soyuz MS-18 crew, Sergei Korsakov.
In September, it was reported that NASA refused to buy a seat on the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz MS, which would be used in the spring of 2021 to send an American astronaut to the ISS.
