MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. Seven spacewalks are planned for the next Russian crew onboard the ISS, Oleg Artemyev, one of the crew members, said at a news conference hosted by TASS.
"There will be seven spacewalks. That’s the plan and we’ll be happy even if one takes place," he said. The other two crew members are Sergey Korsakov and Denis Matveyev.
Artemyev said one of the spacewalks will be joined by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, and the rest will be along with Matveyev. All the three have the training required for spacewalks, but only Korsakov can handle the European Robotic Arm, a manipulator, Artemyev said.
The Soyuz-2.1a booster rocket with the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft is scheduled to blast off at 18:55 Moscow time on March 18. It’s planned that Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, who will become the second TASS special correspondent in space, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov, will take the flight to the ISS. The backup crew includes Sergey Prokopiev, Anna Kikina and Dmitry Petelin. The flight to the station will follow a two-turn pattern (lasting about three hours).
The crew members all graduated from Moscow’s Bauman State Technical University, and the third stage of the booster rocket will be emblazoned with the university’s coat of arms.