Russian cosmonauts Konstantin Borisov and Alexander Grebenkin will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on American Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2023-2024. This was announced on March 1 by the press service of Roskosmos.
“According to the cross-flight agreement between Roscosmos and NASA, Konstantin Borisov will go to the International Space Station as part of the crew of the Crew-7 mission in the second half of 2023, Alexander Grebenkin will go to the International Space Station as part of the crew of the Crew-8 mission in the first half of 2024,” it says. in the message.
Thus, the Roskosmos added, the expedition of Alexander Grebenkin is expanding the agreement on cross-flights for one more mission.
Earlier, on February 27, it became known that the launch of Crew Dragon with the Crew-6 crew, which includes Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev, was postponed to the ISS for technical reasons. A malfunction in the launch complex system prevented the ship from being sent.
Later, on March 1, NASA explained that the launch of the ship was postponed due to a clogged filter. A malfunction has occurred in the ground fuel supply system. The start was postponed to March 2.
On January 25, the head of the American ISS program, Joel Montalbano, said that Roscosmos was openly cooperating with American partners. He added that NASA is looking forward to continuing the cross-flight program with Russia.
Prior to that, on July 14, 2022, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on cross-flights of cosmonauts and astronauts to the ISS. In addition to joint flights in 2022 and 2023, the agreement provides for one more launch of Russian and American ships with international crews in 2024.
