Russia to Halve Number of Piloted Missions to ISS in 2020

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia will send only two manned Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2020, instead of four it has been sending every year since 2009, according to insurance broker RK-Insurance, a subsidiary of Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos.

According to RK-Insurance, piloted missions have been scheduled for the second and fourth quarters of 2020.

In addition to two piloted spacecraft, three Progress-MS space freighters will be sent to the orbital station in 2020.

Earlier, Space Engineering & Technology, the official journal of Russia's Energia rocket and space corporation, reported Russia's Science-Power and Prichal Nodal modules are expected to be delivered and attached to the International Space Station in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and to later help to form the first building blocks of the country's new space station.