Russia imposes drastic measures on the first manned space flight under the coronavirus pandemic

Russia is implementing all the health prevention measures in its hands to prevent the astronauts of the International Space Station from catching the coronavirus COVID-19, which would represent a serious danger to the continuity of the only inhabited complex that has existed in orbit around the Earth for 20 years.

In less than 48 hours, the Russian Soyuz rocket is scheduled to take off on a six-hour trip to the ISS - an acronym for International Space Station - for three new tenants, Russian cosmonauts Iban Vagner and Anatoli Ivanishin and American astronaut Chris Cassidy, the members of expedition number 63. The new residents of the only space complex with a human presence are scheduled to be sent into orbit from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Asian republic of Kazakhstan on Thursday, April 9, at 10:05 a.m. Spanish time.

The Soyuz 2.1a carrier rocket has been installed on its launch ramp since 6 April, with the manned spacecraft, also called Soyuz and denominated MS-16, lodged on its upper part.Since March 24, the astronauts and about 270 Russian specialists have been in Baikonur, where they have been helping to prepare for space flight. 

On the technical level, the Russian specialists have already carried out all the pre-launch tests. The systems on board the rocket and the space capsule have been tested and communications with the ground stations that will control the flight parameters have already been reviewed. 

If each launch of a space launcher has its own particularities and risks, the manned flight planned for April 9 is very different from all those that preceded it, both because of the risk of COVID-19 infection of the astronauts and technicians and the possible contagion of those who now inhabit the ISS. Roscosmos CEO Dimitri Rogozin has implemented drastic safety measures and among his first decisions, according to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, has been to extend the astronauts' quarantine period and to cancel, limit or modify some of the pre-launch traditions that every crew member flying into space complies with.

One of these has been to cancel a visit to Moscow's Red Square and the home of Sergei Korolev, the father of the Soviet space program. Instead, the custom of planting a tree on the so-called "Cosmonauts' Walk", a grove of trees located at the Training Center near the Russian capital, has been maintained.

Once they arrived in Baikonur on March 27, they were allowed to raise the flags of Russia, the United States and Kazakhstan, but staying completely away from the rest of the attendees, only directors and space executives from the aforementioned nations. Another restriction imposed is that no unofficial guests or media are allowed to be present at the Baikonur space base to provide informative coverage of the launch.

Completely isolated until they take their seats in the MS-16 space capsule, Baikonur also has a backup crew, but totally separated from their three companions. Composed by the Russians Serguei Ryzhikov and Andrei Babkin and the American Stephen Bowen, they have received a training exactly like the main crew.

Thus, in the event that it is advisable to urgently relieve some or all of the main crew members due to accident, injury, psychological reasons or mild symptoms of a simple cold or COVID-19, it will be possible to immediately carry out the replacement without affecting the mission.
 

The epicenter of Russia's coronavirus pandemic is in Moscow, where official sources report more than 7,500 cases of infection and around 50 deaths. According to Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, among the 200,000 employees of the Russian space sector, by the end of March "only one person was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19.

Generally speaking, in Baikonur and in all Russian space centres, digital thermometers are used to take the temperature of employees, from the moment they enter the buses that transport them to their workplaces, they enter laboratories, workshops and offices, and when they return home. Roscosmos rules require drivers to undergo daily medical checks and have bus seats sprayed with disinfectants "in the morning before starting work and in the afternoon at the end of the work day. And to disinfect offices, workshops, buildings and streets in the workplace. 

In accordance with the instructions of the Russian Federal Medical and Biological Agency, all Russian and foreign space managers and technicians arriving in Baikonur from Moscow by air are checked for temperature and required to fill out special questionnaires. In addition, they are required to remain under medical supervision at their homes or in the hotels where they are staying. Suspected cases and those with symptoms of fever or dry cough, muscle pain or general malaise are isolated, medically tested and quarantined. 

The three members of the 63rd expedition to the ISS will be joined at an altitude of 400 kilometres by three other astronauts, American Jessica Meir and her partner Andrew Morgan, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka. Morgan arrived at the ISS on July 20, 2019, and Meir and Skripochka on September 25, and since then have been isolated from the effects of the pandemic that is spreading around the world. Their return to land is scheduled for April 17.

The three new occupants, once adapted to life in microgravity on board the ISS, will carry out the tasks entrusted to them: carry out multiple scientific experiments and conduct a large number of tests with new materials under weightless conditions. Until their return to earth in October this year, they will also carry out several spacewalks to repair systems that have expired or broken down due to the effects of cosmic radiation on equipment outside the orbital complex.

In addition to the April 9 launch, another flight is scheduled for April 25 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. In this case it is not a manned mission but a Progress supply ship bound for the ISS.