NEW YORK, August 1. /TASS/. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Space X have moved the launch date for the mission of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, carrying a crew including Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, to the International Space Station (ISS) up to August 21.

The start of the SpaceX Crew-7 Mission to replace the current crew had been planned for August 17. "NASA and SpaceX now are targeting 5:23 a.m. EDT Monday (12:23 p.m. Moscow time), August 21, for the launch of the agency’s Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station," NASA said in a statement. The postponement of the mission, according to NASA, will allow for better preparing the launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA added that there is a backup date for the mission, which is August 25.

Borisov will be part of the next crewed mission to the ISS under the cross-flight program. Other crew members include NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.

In the first half of 2024, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin is expected to fly to the ISS on the Crew-8 mission.

On July 15, 2022, Russian state aerospace corporation Roscosmos reported the signing of an agreement on cross flights of Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts to the ISS, which provides for three flights of Russian crew members on American spacecraft. Later, the program was extended by one more mission.

Now, the Russian segment on the ISS is represented by Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin (TASS special correspondent on the ISS), who have been joined by United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi.