The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a medium rocket with the Soyuz MS-17 manned spacecraft was probably the last one for which NASA paid Roscosmos, writes SpaceNews.
The American publication notes that this circumstance testifies to the “end of an era for NASA,” which will now use its own Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, not Soyuz MS-17, to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceNews is confident that in the future NASA will continue to use the Russian Soyuz MS, and Roskosmos, after being certified by American spacecraft, will start using the American Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner. The publication notes that in this case, the United States will not pay Russia for mixed crews on the Soyuz MS.
SpaceNews notes that NASA paid Roscosmos $ 90.25 million for the last launch service.
The launch of Soyuz-2.1a with Soyuz MS-17 took place on October 14 at 08:45 Moscow time from launch pad # 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome. On board the spacecraft were Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, and American astronaut Kathleen Rubins. The spacecraft rendezvous with the ISS took place according to an ultrafast two-turn scheme. The successful docking of Soyuz MS-17 and the ISS took place at 11:53.
In October, Anatoly Zak, an expert in the field of Soviet and Russian cosmonautics, announced that the first flight of a Russian cosmonaut to the ISS on the American spacecraft Crew Dragon is scheduled for mid-September 2021.
On May 30, a heavy rocket Falcon 9 was launched from the Crew Dragon to the ISS. Astronauts Douglas Hurley and Bob Behnken were on board the spacecraft. 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. From then until May 30, the Americans used exclusively Russian Soyuz to deliver the astronauts to the ISS.
