CIS

Home page

CIS

First fully Russian Soyuz crew to head to ISS in autumn 2020

04 October 2019 16:13 (UTC +04:00)

The first crew of the Soyuz MS spacecraft consisting only of Russian cosmonauts could blast off to the International Space Station in autumn 2020, Manned Spaceflight Executive Director at the Roscosmos State Space Corporation Sergei Krikalev told reporters on Friday, APA reports citing TASS.

Earlier, the crew including only Russians flew to the Mir orbital station in 2000. Back then, Russian cosmonauts Sergey Zaletin and Aleksandr Kaleri headed there onboard the Soyuz TM-30 manned spacecraft.

"Next year, we will have one launch with two [Russian cosmonauts] and then there will be three of them," Krikalev said, noting that these launches would take place in spring (April or March) and in autumn.