Roscosmos will replace the crew of the new expedition to the ISS

Roscosmos decided to replace the Russian part of the crew of the next expedition to the International Space Station. This was announced by the executive director of Roskosmos for manned programs Sergey Krikalev.

“I regret to say that, in view of medical indications, we now, apparently, will have a replacement of the crew,” RIA Novosti quotes Krikalev.

The representative of Roskosmos specified that instead of Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will fly to the ISS.

Details about the health of Tikhonov and Babkin Krikalev did not specify, noting only that one of them was “temporarily unfit”. According to RIA Novosti sources, Tikhonov was injured.

• The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft will depart for the ISS on April 9, 2020. The crew of the ship initially consisted of Nikolai Tikhonov, Andrei Babkin and American astronaut Chris Cassidy. The American, most likely, will not be replaced.
• Previously, the crew of the Russian space expedition was replaced in 1996. This happened due to a microinfarction, which was discovered in cosmonaut Gennady Manakov a week before the flight to the Mir orbital station.