US Astronaut Hague Says Would 'Absolutely' Like To Fly To ISS As Part Of Integrated Crew

CAPE CANAVERAL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th October, 2022) US astronaut Nick Hague told Sputnik that he would definitely want to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the integrated crew program.

"Absolutely. Like I mentioned before, one of the special aspects of flying in space is getting to do that with people from all over the globe," Hague stated.

Hague spoke on the eve of NASA's launch of the SpaceX Crew-5 mission with US and Japanese astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

When asked whether he would like and thinks he will have a chance to fly onboard the commercial vehicle, Hague said, "I'm part of the current astronaut corps. I'm assignable."

"So I do have aspirations of flying again," he shared. "I'd like to say that any spaceflight would be an amazing spaceflight, whether that's on a Dragon or Starliner, or Soyuz, I wouldn't turn any of them down. I have heard that the ride on the SpaceX is pretty miraculous. So I'd be game for sure."

Hague said currently he works back in the astronaut office and one of his principal tasks is working on the Boeing Starliner.

"So we're gonna launch a SpaceX Dragon tomorrow. And soon next year, we're going to launch a Boeing Starliner and that'll give us another commercial provider to continue to make the access to space more robust. So that's what I've been working on," he said.

In July, Roscosmos and NASA signed an agreement on integrated flights of cosmonauts and astronauts to the ISS. As part of the agreement, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket with a Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft was launched from Baikonur to the ISS on September 21 carrying another crew including Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio. The only female cosmonaut at Roscosmos, Anna Kikina, will fly to the ISS on the US-made Crew Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday.

In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded US astronaut Nick Hague with the Order of Courage for the bravery that he showed during the aborted launch of Russia's Soyuz-FG rocket in October 2018.

On October 11, 2018, the Soyuz-FG booster failed to launch the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft, which was supposed to bring Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin to the International Space Station (ISS).The mission was aborted due to booster malfunction minutes after liftoff. The two-man crew escaped in a rescue capsule and returned to the ground unharmed.

As Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos and NASA agreed to organize a new flight promptly, Hague and Ovchinin arrived at the ISS on March 15, together with NASA astronaut Christina Koch. On October 3, Hague and Ovchinin returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft, together with the first UAE astronaut, Hazzaa Al Mansoori.