Roscosmos announced a possible flight of a US astronaut on Soyuz MS-22

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut Francisco Rubio will join the crew of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft at the signing of an agreement on cross-flights between Russia and the United States. This was announced on Thursday, January 20, in Roscosmos.

It is noted that the astronaut can go on a Russian ship instead of cosmonaut Anna Kikina.

“In the event that Roscosmos and NASA sign an agreement on “cross” flights to the ISS (International Space Station. – Ed.), Anna Kikina is planned to be included in the main crew of the Crew Dragon spacecraft (USCV-5 flight), which is expected to be launched in August 2022, and instead of it to the main crew of the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft – NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio,” the message says.

On January 11, the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, said that he could not personally communicate with the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, due to the coronavirus, but was waiting for a face-to-face meeting. He noted that while the heads of the two space agencies have to communicate by phone.

Earlier, on December 25, the head of the Roscosmos press service, Dmitry Strugovets, congratulated NASA on the successful launch of the newest James Webb space telescope.

In addition, he expressed hope that the telescope will successfully reach the Lagrange point L2, where it will be met by the Russian astrophysical space observatory Spektr-RG.

The Ariane 5 launch vehicle lifted off from Kourou in French Guiana with the latest James Webb Space Telescope on December 25. The launch was planned for December 18, but was postponed several times.

Over the course of four weeks, the telescope will move to its destination of the second Lagrange point, which is four times farther from the Earth than the Moon, at a distance of 1.5 million km on the opposite side from the Sun.