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Russia replaces two cosmonauts on next space station crew for 'medical reasons':
Two Russian cosmonauts have been removed from the next scheduled launch to the International Space Station "for medical reasons," according to the Russian space agency.
In a statement posted to its website on Wednesday (Feb. 19), Roscosmos said that Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin will no longer fly to the space station in April, and will instead be replaced by backup crew members.
"The positions of the commander and flight engineer of the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft will now be taken by Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner," the agency said [In Russian]. "The changes will affect only the Russian part of the crew."
A NASA spokesperson confirmed that U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy will continue to prepare for the mission, which will now see him, Ivanishin and Vagner serve as the Expedition 63 crew on board the space station.
Roscosmos provided few details about the medical concerns that led to the crew change. The agency's director of human spaceflight, former cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, said in a news briefing that the issue involved one of the two replaced crew members.
"Due to personal data, we will not disclose it yet," said Krikalev, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russian media reports, citing unnamed sources, said that it was Tikhonov who had suffered an injury. Roscosmos appeared to support that by confirming that Babkin, along with cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov, had been reassigned as the new Soyuz MS-16 backup crew members.
Ivanishin, Vagner and Cassidy are scheduled to launch on April 9 atop a Soyuz-2.1a booster from Site 31 at Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will be the first spaceflight for Vagner and the third for both Ivanishin and Cassidy.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @02:51PM (15 children)
What's with the scare quotes? Is someone trying to insinuate that Putin/Trump wanted them recalled to Earth?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:06PM (9 children)
I came here to post and say the same thing.
I am getting really sick of these quotes in the media, specifically when they are used to add a tone of disbelief or incredulousness about something that doesn't merit the overt display of bias.
If there's some reason to disbelieve why Russia is managing their staffing of the crew, then great, outline that.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:35PM
Ditto. Like, do people really expect them to go into detail what the medical problem was? We actually have laws against that over here in the USA.
Unless they have the tiniest shred of evidence the Russians are lying about it, they can fuck right off.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Troll) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:30PM (6 children)
Perhaps those quotes indicate that it was some sort of quotation and were not intended to scare you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @11:42PM (1 child)
It means "that is what they said the reason was".
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 21 2020, @04:24PM
And unless you have fair reason to question it the quotes are unnecessary. If you have fair reason to question it then you state your reasoning after using the quotes. It's up to me, as the reader, to figure out what should have had scare quotes unless the author is going to justify their use.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 21 2020, @04:27PM (3 children)
Then the editor needs to directly attribute who said it. (The summary title. The article attributes it correctly but missed the intro comma before the quotes.) Better sentence construction would have been: Two Russian cosmonatus have been removed from the next scheduled International Space Station launch for what the Russian Space Agency described as, "medical reasons."
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 21 2020, @04:29PM
And better title construction would have been: Russia replaces two cosmonauts for next ISS launch for medical reasons. (No quotes necessary). Or Russia replaces two cosmonauts for next ISS launch described as, "medical reasons".
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 21 2020, @04:42PM (1 child)
It's attributed in the very first sentence!
Two Russian cosmonauts have been removed from the next scheduled launch to the International Space Station "for medical reasons," according to the Russian space agency.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday February 21 2020, @04:56PM
OK. Why are the quotes necessary at all? Why is this not equally clear and correct: Two Russian cosmonauts have been removed from the next scheduled launch to the International Space Station for medical reasons, according to the Russian space agency.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Aegis on Friday February 21 2020, @12:21AM
God, there's no conspiracy too small!
It's a very dry report chock full of quotes. Nobody is trying to scare anybody.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday February 20 2020, @05:00PM
Perhaps they got "Space Herpes" or some other embarrassing social disease. But yes "scare quotes" are stupid for the most part. If Trump/Putin demand their return to earth cause they have fallen from grace then I'm not sure if they just wouldn't be better off if they spaced themselves out the airlock.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @05:29PM (1 child)
In Russia, medical reasons could mean executed. In USA, medical reasons could mean a hangnail.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:14PM
I could believe that at one point, but I think the current Russia isn't quite that nuts. Plus, why would you execute Cosmonauts? Seems like they'd be smart enough not to do something that would lead to their execution. Much more likely that they swapped out Cosmonauts, in case this whole coronavirus thing explodes. In which case, it might be nice to have fresh guys up there, who won't need to come back for a good while.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @05:40PM
So you're admitting that Putin/Trump were sewn together top to bottom? It does make sense, must've used some of those fancy non-local quantum sutures.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:26PM
I think those are just normal quotes. As in, they indicate that they were the exact words used in the Russian agency announcement.