Russian movie plans mean NASA astronaut could spend an entire year in space

Mark Vande Hei is currently is expected to spend six months aboard the International Space Station, but the potential arrival of a Russian film crew means he would have to give up his return seat, forcing the veteran NASA astronaut to spend an entire year in the ‘space.

Vande Hei only recently learned that he was officially joining the Soyuz MS-18 mission, and now he’s been told his stay on the ISS could last until spring 2022, instead of ending. this October.

He and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Piotr Dubrovnik The launch is scheduled for April 9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. VSosmonaut Sergey Korsakov was supposed to have a seat on the MS-18, but a unusual arrangement involving NASA, Roscosmos and the private American company Axiom Space made the flight possible for Vande Hei. In exchange, Axiom Srhythm will provide a seat for a cosmonaut in 2023. This is done to ensure an uninterrupted American presence on the ISS – a chain of continuity that dates back more than 20 years.

Vande Hei, who has been preparing for months, will join the Expedition 64/65 crew aboard the ISS. SIf the recently announced plan to shoot a movie aboard the station comes to fruition, it will be in space twice as long as expected.

Russian director Klim Shipenko and a later named actress could join the Soyuz MS-19 mission, scheduled to launch in October, as AP reports. The working title of the film is Vyzov, which means “challenge” in English, and aims to “highlight Russian space activities and glorify the profession of cosmonaut”, according to a Press release. The film is produced by Channel One of Russia and a television studio, by AP.

Once filming activities were completed, Shipenko and his partner, along with Novitskiy, would return home on MS-18, possibly within a week. Both seats were intended for Vande Hei and Dubrovnik, meaning the couple may have to stay on the ISS until the next trip home, likely in the spring of 2022.

Vande Hei, who spent 168 days in space from September 2017 to February 2018, seemed imperturbable on the whole.

“Honestly, for me, it’s just an opportunity for a new life experience,” he said. Told journalists yesterday during the press conference. “I have never been in the space for more than six months,” he said. “I’m really excited about it.”

Sending “tourists” into space is nothing new for Roscosmos. The Russian space agency started doing this in 2001, for an assumed fee of $ 20 million per seat, according to at Space Policy Online. A total of seven tourists made the trip to space, but these missions ended about 10 years ago, when NASA, unable to launch its own astronauts into space, began to reclaim the additional Soyuz seats. As Space Policy Online points out, the successful development of SpaceX’s CrewDragon means that NASA is no longer dependent on Russia, freeing Roscosmos once again. register space tourists, or in that case, filmmakers.

Speculation about actor Tom Cruise heading to the ISS to shoot a movie is unconfirmed, but such an endeavor, if it did occur, would likely involve Axiom Space.

As already noted, NASA no longer depends on Roscosmos to launch astronauts into space. Should the space agency really, really want to get Vande Hei back, he could press SpaceX for the task. But the extended stay would be give scientists an additional opportunity to investigate thethe eventual effects of microgravity on the human body, something we need to know more about before humans can visit Mars.

Here’s something else to consider: Kate Rubins is NASA’s backup astronaut for the MS-18. If Vande Hei couldn’t join the mission next month, and if Russia planned to film a movie, that means Rubins would. stay in space for over a year. This would give her the opportunity to break the women’s record for extended space flight, currently held by Christina Koch, who recently spent 328 days in space.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, along with his Russian crewmember Mikhail Kornienko, spent 340 days aboard the ISS as part of a mission that ended five years ago. The overall record belongs to cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov, who spent 437 days aboard the Mir space station, followed by Sergei Avdeyev, who spent 380 consecutive days days in orbit.