NASA to Continue Flying Astronauts on Russian Soyuz

Washington: NASA is likely to continue flying its astronauts on the Russian Soyuz vehicle even after US commercial crew vehicles arrive, media report said. However, nothing has been signed officially yet, an agency spokesperson said. “Bill Gerstenmaier and senior NASA leadership have stated their intention to have US crewmembers on Soyuz vehicles after 2019 and (to have) Russians on US crew vehicles,” Stephanie Schierholz, who works in public affairs at NASA Headquarters in Washington, was quoted as saying to Space.com on Tuesday. Gerstenmaier is the associate administrator for human exploration and operations for NASA. The US space agency retired its space shuttle program in 2011 and has relied on Russian vehicles since then to go to the ISS. The US space agency has an agreement with Russia to fly crews on Russian Soyuz through at least 2019, and some of those crewmembers are already announced, the report said. (IANS)

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