Sergei Krikalev, executive director of the Roskosmos state corporation for manned space programs, said in an interview with TASS that despite a temporary reduction in the number of Russian cosmonauts, they are still being recruited and trained, and the temporarily free space can be given to tourists or used for storing additional cargo. It is possible that the vacant cabin will simply be kept free until the Russian cosmonauts begin to fly again in teams of three people. The fact is that in December 2017 it is planned to launch a new multi-functional laboratory module (MLM), but after its launch it will need some time to dock with the station and begin to fully function. As soon as this happens, the composition of the Russian crews will again be increased to three people.
Recently it became known that Roskosmos and RSC Energia made a decision to reduce the volume of the Federal Space Program for 2016-2025. fewer Russian cargo ships will fly to the ISS, and instead of three astronauts in the Russian segment of the ISS, two will work. Mr. Krikalev noted that the reduction of the team will not affect the performance of the team, just two cosmonauts will perform slightly more tasks.
He also spoke about the ship "Federation". The engineers decided to make the ship hull aluminum. Previously, the option of using composite materials was being worked out, but now it has been left in reserve. Unmanned launch of the new ship "Federation" is scheduled for 2021, and in 2023 they plan to carry out a manned launch. The ship is new, so you need to prepare for the flight carefully. And, if people are already absolutely selected for participation in future flights, then the question regarding the robot Fedor is not yet fully resolved.
It is quite reasonable that robots will continue to take part in missions, but will it be advisable to combine tests of a robot and a test flight of a ship in 2021, or is it better to postpone these two events? This we will understand closer to the timeline of the flight. - says Sergey Krikalev.
The flight test program of the “Federation” is still being compiled, and the fly-by-moon scheme is also being discussed, and with colleagues from other countries Roscosmos continues to negotiate the creation of a circumlunar orbital infrastructure. Several options are being considered, including the creation of two bases: one on high and the other on low orbit.
The article is based on materials .
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