BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Roscosmos PR) — September 19 saw the first preflight training session of the Soyuz MS-19 crewed spacecraft prime and backup crews under the program of the 66th long-term expedition to the International Space Station.

The Russian government has allocated $60.6 million (4.4 billion rubles) to the Roscosmos subsidiary Glavkosmos to produce a Soyuz 2.1a rocket and Soyuz MS spacecraft for a space tourism flight scheduled for 2024, according to Space Daily. Glavkosmos head Dmitry Loskutov said in May that the company was already in talks with potential space tourists and was simultaneously working on putting together a reserve of Soyuz spaceships to make the […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin has said that Russia will extend cosmonaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from six to 12 months in order to gather data needed for missions to the moon and Mars.

“We are talking about stable operations that will be carried out as part of yearly expeditions. Now this will be placed on a systemic basis with the corresponding system of biomedical researches. Year-long expeditions are what we need,” Rogozin said.

Well, that sounds good. Far sighted, even visionary. That’s what makes it so odd; these are not words normally associated with the Roscosmos boss. Something else seems to be going on here.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Glavkosmos is offering space tourists the option of performing spacewalks from the International Space Station (ISS) and stays of up to 30 days aboard the orbital laboratory. They can even purchase the Soyuz space capsule that took them to and from the station.

The company, which is part of Roscosmos, recently upgraded its website to provide details of what paying customers can do when they book a trip to the station. The information is available in Russian and English.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — On Monday, the crew of the feature film tentatively titled “Vyzov” (“The Challenge”) began preparations for the flight to the International Space Station in October at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (CTC). Director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild started training, together with their backups Alexey Dudin and Alena Mordovina.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov will be commander of the ISS-66 prime crew, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev is his backup. The crew commanders have already started training, as the cosmonaut who will take the film crew to the ISS will have to stay there and carry out his immediate duties for six months.

The director and actress will go into orbit as spaceflight participants for a much shorter period. According to preliminary data, the film crew of the “The Challenge” will stay at the International Space Station for less than two weeks. Their preflight training program differs from the training plan for professional cosmonauts, but includes elements that are mandatory for all crew members.