As part of the cross-flight agreement between Roscosmos and NASA, one more Russian cosmonaut has been agreed to be sent to the International Space Station on an American spacecraft. He will be Kirill Peskov, who will be part of the crew of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon manned spacecraft. It is planned that he will arrive at the station in February 2025.
The arrangement concerns the expedition, codenamed Crew-10. The four-person team will be the next to be sent into orbit from the American spaceport, after the launch of Crew-9 with Alexander Gorbunov, scheduled for August 18th.
SpaceX will realize both missions using the Crew Dragon spacecraft. In addition to Kirill Peskov, the crew will include Japanese Takuya Onishi, as well as two NASA astronauts, Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers. The U.S. aerospace agency says the launch is scheduled for February 2025, but specific dates have not yet been set.
A few months before the launch, the Russian cosmonaut will travel to the United States, where he will undergo pre-flight training with his colleagues. It is worth noting that the future Crew-9 participants spent part of their training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (to practice operations on the Russian segment of the station).
Recall that the agreement, based on which Roscosmos and NASA support each other in sending cosmonauts to the ISS, was concluded back in July 2022. It is not only aimed at deepening cooperation in space and preserving ties between the states but also allows to ensure the presence of at least one Russian and one American astronaut on board the ISS in case of any unforeseen problems. The agreement was extended in 2023.
