(credit: NASA)
In 2009, following a series of space shuttle missions to complete major portions of the International Space Station, the crew size aboard the orbiting laboratory expanded to six. The number of crew members aboard the station has, more or less, remained steady since then, with Russia providing half the crew while NASA and its international partners provide another three astronauts.
But, in a surprise announcement, Russia is considering scaling back its crew complement from three to two. According to Russian media reports, Sergei Krikalev, the director of human programs for Roscosmos, said the move was made to lower Russia’s ongoing costs to service the station. By reducing the number of its crew members, Russia will need to fly fewer Progress cargo ships, which deliver food and supplies to the Russian side of the station.
Roscosmos already spends considerably less on station operations than NASA does. Russian media report that Roscosmos plans to spend about $4.1 billion from 2016 through 2025 for station maintenance. That’s just a little more than NASA’s annual expenses for station operation and transportation, which were $3.7 billion in fiscal year 2016.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – Space station crew may drop to five because of Russia