The Roscosmos State Corporation has now confirmed the prime, backup and reserve crews of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft. The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Soyuz MS-17 is scheduled for October 2020 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The Interagency Commission has included Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov (ISS-64 and Soyuz MS commander) and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov (ISS-64 flight engineer, Soyuz MS flight engineer), as well as NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins (ISS-64 flight engineer, Soyuz MS flight engineer-2) to the prime crew.
The backup crew consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky (ISS-64 flight engineer, Soyuz MS commander) and Pyotr Dubrov (ISS-64 flight engineer, Soyuz MS flight engineer), as well as NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei (ISS-64 flight engineer, Soyuz MS flight engineer-2).
The reserve crew was formed particularly due to the current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic situation and includes Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov (ISS-64 flight engineer, Soyuz MS commander) and Andrey Babkin (ISS-64 flight engineer, Soyuz MS flight engineer).
Photo credit: Roscosmos
