Russian Cosmonauts to Undergo Training for Spacewalk From US Segment of ISS
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov in the open space
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian cosmonauts will undergo training to go into outer space from the US segment of the International Space Station (ISS) under the agreement with NASA, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday. “In 2022, under the contract with NASA, Roscosmos continued to provide engineering support for the ISS Functional Cargo Block Zarya and signed a number of additional provisions to the contract… on training of Russian cosmonauts for extravehicular activity and robotics on the US segment of the station,” the statement read. The Russian agency did not provide any details as to when cosmonauts would go into outer space and who exactly would take part in it. In July 2022, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on integrated flights of astronauts to the ISS. As part of the agreement, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur to the ISS on September 21, carrying another crew that included Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio. On July 21, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti went for a spacewalk under the Russian flight program, the first time a Russian made a joint spacewalk with a foreigner in 13 years.
