posted 06-21-2010 04:56 PM               

Roscosmos to Invest Production of the 5th Soyuz Crew Vehicle in 2010

Before the end of 2010, Roscosmos is to transfer advanced payment to RSC-Energia to build the fifth Soyuz-TMA crew vehicle, Head of Roscosmos Human Space Flight Directorate Alexey Krasnov told news media at the press conference in the Mission Control Center after the docking of Soyuz TMA-19 to the ISS.

Currently, Energia builds four crew Soyuzes per year, under the Federal Space Program, to maintain ISS crew rotation. The fifth Soyuz annually is needed for commercial purposes.

"RSC-Energie need the fifth Soyuz to enter commercial space services market. We were requested about launching their astronauts to the ISS in Russian vehicles by Canadian Space Agency. We would have this opportunity with the fifth Soyuz," Krasnov stated.

posted 06-22-2010 08:24 AM               

Compensation can come as direct payments or in the form of the onboard currency -- crew time (allocating crew members to do the work needed by the partner to which the debt is owed).

posted 07-01-2010 06:35 PM               

Canada and Europe are discussing a deal with Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, for Soyuz spacecraft to fly short-duration missions beginning sometime between 2013 and 2016.

"We are looking how to complement our current flight opportunities, and we are indeed discussing [this] with Roscosmos," said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA's director of human spaceflight.

The Canadian Space Agency is also negotiating with Roscosmos to pay for an extra Soyuz flight, but the talks are still preliminary, according to Gilles Leclerc, agency's director-general for space exploration.

"There's only been a couple of calls to Roscosmos," Leclerc said in a June 25 interview. "The Canadian Space Agency has discussed with Roscosmos the possibility of producing an additional Soyuz spacecraft that would serve the needs of the ISS partners."

Although flights lasting one to three weeks are most likely under the potential deal, ESA and CSA could mount longer missions of up to several months. ESA and Russia are evaluating both options and should issue a technical report by September, Di Pippo said June 30.