MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. The crew of the future Russian Orbital Station (ROS) will initially include two cosmonauts, a representative of the press service of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (part of space corporation Roscosmos) told TASS.

"The ROS crew at the initial stage will consist of two cosmonauts, which means that on the ROS each crew member will have a wider range of duties and areas of responsibility than on the ISS. This will have a corresponding impact on the training of cosmonauts," the official said.

The representative of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center specified that the cosmonauts will be delivered to the ROS and returned back by manned transport ships of the new generation, for which they will be trained during training.

The new orbital station is expected to develop key technologies for future space flights, including those to the Moon and Mars. In this case, special attention will be paid to the radiation protection of the crew and equipment.

"At the ROS, it is planned to test instruments, advanced technologies, new components, systems and prototypes of equipment in full-scale conditions of space flight, made on the domestic element base. This, in turn, determines the tasks of developing all components of the cosmonaut training system at the Cosmonaut Training Center for new space programs," the press service explained

At the moment, the preliminary design of the Russian Orbital Station is underway. It is expected to be completed this summer. In October 2022, Deputy Prime Minister and Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told reporters that the preliminary cost of creating a promising ROS is already known.

In February, Vladimir Kozhevnikov, deputy general designer of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia and the leading designer of the Russian orbital station, told TASS that a science and power module of a new Russian orbital station (ROS) will be launched in 2027 and another four modules will be dispatched to orbit in 2028-2030.