Roscosmos released a statement on Wednesday that the US, in late 2020, asked for a spot on Soyuz MS-18, to go to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 9. The US has been dependent on Russian flights since 2011, but Elon Musk’s May 2020 success with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon suggested that the US had regained its own capability to get to the ISS. The Russian statement noted that the US request was made very late in the process, and required adjustments in the Russian program, but Roscosmos will accommodate the request so as to “confirm its commitment to joint agreements and the spirit of joint use of the International Space Station. The tradition of international crews, which has existed for more than twenty years, will be continued again.”
NASA’s Mark Vande Hei will travel with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, and stay on the ISS for six months. He replaces Russian astronaut Sergei Korsakov. Previously, NASA had said that it wanted to minimize “risks associated with any interruption in U.S. crew member presence on ISS,” should there be any problems with commercial vehicles. It was not made clear, also, why NASA worked through a go-between, Axiom Space, in securing a place on Soyuz.
