Nasa boarded Russian rockets for free.
NASA got a "free" ticket from Russia because it was so expensive that the United States was no longer willing to pay $9,025,000 to buy the ticket instead of exchanging it.
The Soyuz capsule docks with the International Space Station/NASA
A unique program that includes nasa, the Russian space agency and a commercial intermediary will witness an American astronaut flying to the International Space Station (ISS) for free, keeping the tradition left over from more than 20 years ago.
It is said that under normal circumstances, NASA pays $90.25 million to fight for astronauts to get on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. But with the current commercial manning program officially launched, they are increasingly reluctant to pay that amount of money.
NASA did pay such a hefty fee last October to send an American astronaut named Kate Rubins to the space station, which should be the last time the U.S. Treasury department is willing to pay Russia for the space industry.
According to the U.S. Department of Space, they have needed to send astronauts to space more than once, ensuring that space agency investments in commercial manned programs function properly by having U.S. astronauts on the International Space Station until commercial manned spacecraft can be used as usual.
American astronaut Mark Vander Black/NASA
Since September 2000, the International Space Station has been inhabited by at least one American and one Russian at the same time. In order not to disrupt this tradition, and to avoid the unusually high fees paid to Aeroflot, NASA has reached a special agreement with the Russian Ministry of Aviation and Axiom Space, a commercial company headquartered in Houston, Texas, USA.
Through this agreement, American astronaut Mark van der Black will coordinate the completion of the soyuz MS-18 space mission, launched from the Baikonur Air Launch Site in Kazakhstan on April 9. Van der Black and Russian astronauts Oleg Nowitzki and Peter Dubrov will join the 64/65 exploration team on the Isser. In exchange, Axiom Space will also carry a Russian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2023 to repay the favor.
Currently, staff on the International Space Station will return to Earth in April and May, while Space Exploration Technologies' second mission is scheduled for April 22. According to NASA, the sooner Van der Black takes off, the more NASA can ensure that it can get help from U.S. astronauts on the International Space Station when the second set of launch plans is delayed or something unforeseen happens after launch that it has to return early.
NASA actually had to rely on Russia to send astronauts into space as early as 2011, when the Shuttle spacecraft exceeded its service life, so that the U.S. commercial manned program had to find a replacement for the Shuttle; Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon spacecraft had already been launched, and Boeing's starship was often regrettably delayed, and it was full of problems.
The Confederate MS-18 was supposed to be all Russian, but the U.S. demand and the ensuing agreement disrupted Russia's original plans, leaving Russian astronaut Sergei Korsakov on Earth.
The Russian Federal Space Agency said that the change in aviation personnel was due to the sincere request of the United States. The U.S. did not make the request until late 2020, when the Russian side had confirmed and approved the launch plan, which forced Russia to make some changes to the plan, NASA added that the Russian Space Agency took the decision to confirm their compliance with the spirit of the joint agreement and joint use of the International Space Station.
In February, NASA publicly announced its desire to complete its space mission on a Russian spacecraft and promised to repay Russia in the same way, rather than paying huge remittances.
It shouldn't be too surprising that these things went ahead, as nowitzki and Dubrov's training photos show them carrying a mission badge engraved with van der Black's name, according to Space Policy Online. And if Van der Hey can't participate in the MS-18 mission for some reason, American astronaut Anne McLean will replace Russian astronaut Dmitry Peggerine.
As noted above, this cooperation has an axiom space company as an intermediary. In order to be able to send their own astronauts into space in the future, the Private American Company is building a new crew module for the International Space Station. But regarding the arrangements for cooperation between the U.S. and Russian space agencies, the company has not disclosed.
Like the Russian Space Agency, Axiom will arrange for astronauts to travel between the International Space Station and Earth, providing comprehensive support for key missions, such as pre-launch training, launch preparations, operations during launch, and safe landing support. The Aviation Administration said that because the services have the same value to both Russia and the United States, there is no exchange of funds on the agreement. Axiom will presumably use Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon spacecraft to complete its 2023 aviation mission (the company has signed an agreement with Space Exploration Technologies to launch spacecraft four times in 2022).
Admittedly, it was a strange situation, not only that American astronauts were boarded on the Russian Soyuz through intermediaries, but also that the decision was so close to launch. NASA doesn't want to pay that huge amount of money transfers, and it's clearly unwilling to rely entirely on a private counterparty. NASA is caught in a dilemma. Given this, this rare agreement does not indicate how this thing will develop in the future. In fact, the Russian Space Agency does not have a complete incentive to launch American astronauts for free, and even in the future they can ride american spacecraft for free.
In the upcoming MS-18 mission, the crew arriving at the space station will replace U.S. astronaut Kate Robbins and two Russian astronauts. Van der Black will spend six months on the space station experimenting with the cotton root system, Alzheimer's disease and a demonstration of the technology of a portable ultrasound device, as well as experiments to help us understand the effects of prolonged microgravity on the human body. Van der Black is no stranger to space, having participated in the 53/54 space expedition as a team member for a total of 168 days from September 2017 to February 2018.
BY: George Dvorsky
FY: Miao
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