Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya included into main crew for ISS mission
Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya has been included into the main crew for the flight to the International Space Station, the Embassy of Belarus in Russia reports in its Telegram channel
Based on the Cosmonaut Training Centre data, cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky will become the commander.
In addition, NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson will fly to the ISS as a flight engineer.
"Cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, Belarusian paediatric surgeon Anastasia Lenkova and NASA astronaut Donald R. Pettit have been appointed as backup crew members,” the source said.
Marina Vasilevskaya is a flight attendant-instructor of Belavia Airlines, working as part of the crews of Boeing and Embraer aircraft. Marina was professionally engaged in ballroom dancing for 15 years before joining the airline. The lady is fond of interior design, going to the pool, doing aerobics, playing badminton and tennis in her spare time. Upon returning to the ground from the airspace, Marina goes straight down to her garden, where she grows vegetables and herbs with pleasure.
Anastasia Lenkova is a paediatric surgeon at the Republican Scientific-Practical Centre for Paediatric Surgery. Anastasia graduated from the Belarusian State Medical University’s Paediatric Faculty and later passed internship in the ‘paediatric surgery’ specialty. The lady has authored about two dozen scientific papers. She was is a participant and finalist of various international competitions and conferences in Europe. In 2021, Anastasia was awarded the medical qualification of a radiologist, and she has received the second qualification category of a paediatric surgeon this year.
Roscosmos has also reported that the main crew of the 70th and 71st long-term expeditions include Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, as well as NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara. They will go into orbit in September 2023 on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft. It is planned that Loral O'Hara will return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft in March 2024, while Kononenko and Chub will remain at the station until September – to return on Soyuz MS-25.
The main crew of the 21st visiting expedition includes cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, the Belarusian lady and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson. They are scheduled to fly to the station in March 2024 on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft. It is expected that, after a short expedition to the station, Novitsky and the lady will return to Earth on the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft together with O'Hara, while Dyson will continue the flight to the ISS until September 2024 and land together with Kononenko and Chub on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.
