Joel Montalbano, program manager of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the ISS, said that the first Russian cosmonaut could travel to the ISS aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft in the fall of 2022. It is reported by “Interfax”.
According to him, the American agency is preparing an agreement with the Russian state corporation on cross-flights. Montalbano told a press conference for the Crew Dragon-3 mission that he spoke with colleagues from Roscosmos last week during his visit to Moscow and “tried to push this agreement forward.”
“We have made small changes, we are preparing an agreement so that Roscosmos will submit it to its ministry for consideration. Our goal is to have an astronaut as part of the Dragon Crew-5 mission in the fall of 2022 and, under the contract, free of charge, to have an American on the Soyuz at the same time period, ”Montalbano said.
On the morning of October 6, it became known that the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft's “cinema crew” had transferred to the International Space Station (ISS), where the film “Challenge” would be filmed. The arrivals were greeted by the station commander Thomas Peske, cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Peter Dubrov, Japanese Akihiko Hoshide and US astronauts Mark Vande Hai, Shane Kimbrow and Megan MacArthur.
The main crew included Roskosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, director Klim Shipenko, actress Yulia Peresild. All selected candidates underwent special training for space flight participants, which lasted several months. Peresild and Shipenko are expected to stay on the ISS for 12 days
