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Next ISS crew to conduct around 50 experiments on orbit

The crew of the main mission will spend a year on the orbit

ZVEZDNY GORODOK (Moscow Region), March 4. /TASS/. The crew bound for a year-long mission at the International Space Station (ISS) plans to conduct around 50 experiments on the orbit, head of the Cosmonaut Training Center Yury Lonchakov told journalists on Wednesday. No spacewalks are planned for them, Lonchakov added.

"The crew of the main mission - Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly - will spend a year on the orbit, their program on scientific and medical experiments is very extensive. They have prepared for this flight for a long time, and they are ready now. They plan around 49 experiments," he added.

Though no spacewalks are planned for the crew, it will be possible to conduct them if necessary. "The cosmonauts have completed training on activities in the open space. So, if a need arises, they will be ready," Lonchakov noted.

The Cosmonaut Training Center prepares specialists for all possible emergency situations, he stressed. "Simulators at the center are based on real equipment, and all situations can be practiced there. Both our partners and astronauts who use these simulators note this," Lonchakov, who used to work at ISS himself five years ago, stressed.

Three new ISS crews

Three new international crews for ISS were announced on February 13. "NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] and its International Space Station partners have announced the crew members for three upcoming missions to the space station" beginning in 2016, the statement published on NASA’s official website says.

In accordance with the decision of a joint commission, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishikn, US astronaut Kate Rubins and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi will go to the ISS in May 2016.

In September 2016, the mission to the ISS will include Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov and US astronaut Shane Kimbrough. In November 2016, Russian Oleg Novitsky, US Peggy Whitson and European Space Agency (ESA) Thomas Pesquet will follow suit.

At the moment, the ISS crew consists of Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokrutyaev, Elena Serova and Anton Shkaplerov, US astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts, and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.