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Russia’s medical commission approves next expedition’s crew for flight to orbital outpost

The basic and back-up crews have yet to be approved by the inter-agency commission

Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov

© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. Russia’s main medical commission has approved the basic and back-up crews of the next expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), the Cosmonaut Training Center said in a statement posted on its website on Monday.

"Following the commission’s meeting, Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner (the basic crew of the ISS expedition 63) and also Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Babkin (the back-up crew) have been recognized as fit for a space flight based on their health condition," the statement reads.

The medical commission included representatives of the Cosmonaut Training Center, Roscosmos, the Federal Medical Biological Agency, the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Healthcare and Defense Ministries of Russia.

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Soyuz MS-15 crew enters International Space Station

The basic and back-up crews have yet to be approved by the inter-agency commission.

The first manned flight to the orbital outpost in 2020 is scheduled for April 9. The crew of a Soyuz-MS spacecraft will for the first time travel to the orbital outpost atop a Russian Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket. The Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the manned Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft and the crewmembers of the long-term ISS expedition 63 is due to blast off from launch pad No. 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Change of the crews

It was earlier planned that Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin and also US astronaut Chris Cassidy would travel to the International Space Station as the crew of the ISS expedition 63 in April.

However, Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Flights Sergei Krikalyov announced last week that the Russian members of the Soyuz MS-16 crew would probably be replaced by back-up cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner for medical indications. Babkin and Ryzhikov will now be back-up crewmembers, he said.

Currently, three crewmembers are staying on the International Space Station — Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan.

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