MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The Crew-8 mission, which includes Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, is scheduled to launch on February 18 on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, a report by Rafail Murtazin, department head at the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, stated as part of the XLVIII S.P. Korolev Academic Space Readings in memory of Soviet space pioneer Sergey Korolev.

"[The launch of] Crew-8 is 18.2 (February 18 - TASS note)," Murtazin's presentation slide reads. The crew is set to travel to orbit aboard the US-made Crew Dragon spacecraft.

In late December 2023, the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center said that Grebenkin had passed an exam using the space mission simulator of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), thus completing his pre-flight training. At the time, it was noted that the launch of the Crew-8 spacecraft was scheduled for February.

On July 15, 2022, Roscosmos announced that an agreement had been signed on joint cross flights of Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts to the ISS, involving three flights of Russians aboard US spacecraft. Looking back on 2023, Roscosmos reported that the cross flights are expected to run up to and including 2025.