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Russia’s cosmonaut and TASS reporter Artemyev pledges to deliver news from orbital outpost

The Russian cosmonaut said he believed it was necessary to write about positive developments, adding that his first news delivered from the ISS would be about the docking of the spacecraft with the orbital station, about how they were greeted at the orbital outpost, how all cosmonauts feel, about the first results of planned experiments and how cosmonauts managed the shift handover

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who is now the second special correspondent from TASS news agency to deliver news reports from the International Space Station (ISS), said on Thursday he was glad to ‘accept the baton in the relay’ and pledged to share all news with his audience from the orbital outpost.

"I am very glad to accept this relay’s baton from Alexander Mishustin and if speaking about my feelings, I should say that we will continue doing our work in addition to reporting for your news agency," Artemyev said speaking during an online news conference organized by TASS on Thursday.

"In other words, we have been previously reporting about the work of the station sharing the news on the social network platforms of Roscomos [the Russian Space Agency]," the cosmonaut said. "We will continue sharing the news with all of you."

The Russian cosmonaut said he believed it was necessary to write about positive developments, adding that his first news delivered from the ISS would be about the docking of the spacecraft with the orbital station, about how they were greeted at the orbital outpost, how all cosmonauts feel, about the first results of planned experiments and how cosmonauts managed the shift handover.

Artemyev also told the news conference in TASS on Thursday that his crew was scheduled to return back to the Earth on September 30.

"The landing of the spacecraft is scheduled for September 30, which is a very good time of the year and rescuers love this season," Artemyev added.

On Wednesday, a Soyuz-2.1a carrier with a Soyuz MS-21 manned spacecraft named in honor of Sergei Korolev has been installed on the launch pad at Site 31 (Vostok) at the Baikonur spaceport. Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, who will be the second TASS correspondent in space, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov will travel to the International Space Station on the Soyuz spacecraft.

Currently the orbital outpost is crewed by Roscosmos’s Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, NASA’s Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron, and the European Space Agency’s Mattias Maurer.

On November 17, 2021, Russia’s world-renowned TASS news agency and the State Space Corporation Roscosmos signed a memorandum of cooperation, which stipulated establishing a TASS news office aboard the ISS. Under the agreement, Roscosmos cosmonaut, Hero of Russia Alexander Misurkin was selected to be the first TASS correspondent in space.

On the morning of December 20, 2021, a Soyuz MS-20 descent module carrying Roscosmos cosmonaut Misurkin, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his business assistant Yozo Hirano returned to Earth after 12 days in orbit. Misurkin became the first TASS correspondent in working in space.

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