Russia Replaces Two ISS Cosmonauts Due To Their Health Problems

Referring to medical reasons, on Wednesday the space agency of Russia announced the replacement of two cosmonauts who were set to fly on the upcoming Soyuz space mission to the ISS this April with backup members of the crew. 

Accordingly, Andrei Babkin and Nikolai Tikhonov were under training for the April launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome with Chris Cassidy, an astronaut from NASA on the spacecraft serving Soyuz MS-16 mission.

As stated by the space agency Roscosmos of Russia, both experienced cosmonauts Babkin and Tikhonov will soon be replaced by Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin for the space mission Soyuz MS-16. Tasks assigned for Cassidy for the mission will remain the same.

Roscosmos in its statement has mentioned the reason it changed the crew assignments, which was because of “medical reason”. Russian media reported that Tikhonov had an eye injury. Therefore, the backup crew team will be elected to attend the Soyuz MS-16 mission. 

Ivanishin is a senior 51-year-old veteran cosmonaut that has finished two explorations on the ISS, with over 280 days in space, for some missions that were launched during 2011 and 2016. Before being selected to be a cosmonaut, he used to be a combat pilot and flew some fighter jets of the Russian Air Force such as Su-27 and MiG-29. In the upcoming time, he will be the commander of the Soyuz spacecraft.

 In addition, Vagner (34 years old) will be the board engineer on the MS-16 spacecraft. This is the first mission that he is assigned for space exploration.

In April, Oleg Skripochka, the Russian station commander, as well as Jessica Meir and Drew Morgan, who are currently NASA crewmates, will welcome the crew from Soyuz MS-16 to the space station, for the handover period, which is supposed to be week-long. Next, the crew from Skripochka’s Expedition 62 will take off and board to Kazakhstan for landing on the Soyuz MS-15 spaceship. Vagner, Cassidy, and Ivanishin will be the only three-member crew there.