Spacecraft for sale: Russia’s Roscosmos agency advertises vehicle used to bring International Space Station crew back to Earth

The module is being sold by Glavkosmos, a subsidiary of Roscosmos created in 1985. According to its website, the purchase would be ideal for any aerospace exposition. It is the first time the state has sold such an artefact, and no price has been publicly listed.

“If this object attracts interest, Glavkosmos will be able to offer descent capsules to customers in the future, for example, upon completion of tourist missions,” said Dmitry Loskutov, the company’s general director.

FILE PHOTO. Russia’s Soyuz MS-08 capsule carrying the International Space Station Expedition 55/56 crew lands in a remote area south-east of the town Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. © Sputnik

In March 2018, the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS), carrying Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, and two American astronauts Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold.

A few months later, in October 2014, the ISS crew came back down on the MS-08 vehicle, and made a successful landing, again in Kazakhstan, in the very reentry capsule that is now being put up for sale.

FILE PHOTO. The Soyuz MS-08 lander in Kazakhstan. © RIA

The Soyuz MS is the latest version of the Soyuz spacecraft, originally developed during the Soviet era. For nine years, until May 2020, it was the only means to make crewed space flights to the ISS, and was regularly used by NASA astronauts.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Russia plans to make its own replacement for the soon-retiring ISS. Called ROSS, the Russian orbital satellite will consist of three to seven modules and will be capable of carrying up to four people.

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