WASHINGTON — NASA confirmed Sept. 14 that one its space travelers, Mark Vande Hei, will stay on the International Space Station until next March, setting an American spaceflight duration record simultaneously.
The office announced that Vande Hei, alongside Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov, had their half year stays on the station reached out by an additional a half year. The two launched to the station on the Soyuz MS-18 shuttle April 9 alongside Oleg Novitskiy.
Ordinarily, the three would have returned together on that rocket in October after the dispatch of a substitution group on Soyuz MS-19. In any case, Roscosmos declared recently plans to send chief Klim Shipenko and entertainer Yulia Peresild to the station on that rocket, alongside cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
Shipenko and Peresild will go through almost fourteen days on the station, recording scenes for a film, prior to returning on Soyuz MS-18 with Novitskiy. Shkaplerov will stay on the station for a six-month stay, alongside the lengthy missions of Vande Hei and Dubrov.
According to NASA, Vande Hei and Dubrov would return, with Shkaplerov, in March 2022. While NASA didn’t give a precise return date, Vande Hei tweeted that he expected to go through around 353 days in space. The would break the record for the longest spaceflight by an American space explorer: 340 days, set by Scott Kelly on his “one-year” mission to the ISS in 2015–16.
An extended stay, Vande Hei composed, was “a possibility that I was prepared for from the beginning. The opportunity to experience this with wonderful crewmates while contributing to science and future exploration is exciting!”
Indeed, even before the dispatch, Vande Hei said he knew about Russian intends to film a film on the station in October, taking seats that would have been utilized for him to get back following a half year. “Honestly, for me it’s just an opportunity for a new life experience. I’ve never been in space longer than six months,” he said in a preflight preparation in March.
Nelson, in his own tweet, offered his appreciation to Vande Hei. “Much obliged to you, Mark, for your commitment to @NASA and research that will get ready mankind for Artemis missions to the Moon and later to Mars!”
The all-inclusive visit might allow Vande Hei a subsequent opportunity to play out a spacewalk. He was planned to go with Aki Hoshide on a spacewalk last month to introduce gear required for future sunlight based charger redesigns. Be that as it may, NASA deferred this is a direct result of what it called “a minor clinical issue” including Vande Hei. The office didn’t intricate, however Vande Hei later tweeted that he had a squeezed nerve in his neck. That spacewalk occurred Sept. 12 with Thomas Pesquet assuming Vande Hei’s position.
Vande Hei’s more extended stay on the station likewise gives NASA more opportunity to work out a drawn out answer for admittance to Soyuz seats. NASA utilized an outsider, Axiom Space, to obtain the seat for Vande Hei as opposed to buying it straightforwardly. Adage Space purchased the seat from Roscosmos and afterward moved it to NASA in return for a seat on a future business team mission.
NASA has been working with Roscosmos to agree to trade situates straightforwardly, with Russian cosmonauts flying on business group vehicles in return for NASA or other accomplice space explorers flying on Soyuz. Those conversations are as yet in progress.
