MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Babkin will be backup crewmembers in the new crew of the Soyuz MS-16 spaceship, which will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in April, Roscosmos Executive Director for Manned Space Programs Sergei Krikalyov said.
"We still have plenty of time; we will probably safeguard ourselves and form a backup crew now. It is most likely that they will be Ryzhikov and Babkin," Krikalyov said.
He said earlier that Babkin and Nikolai Tikhonov, who are members of the original crew, would probably be replaced by their backup crewmembers Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Wagner due to health problems of one Russian crewmember. Krikalyov did not disclose the name of the cosmonaut whose health problems led to his replacement.
U.S. crewmember Chris Cassidy will most likely not be replaced, Krikalyov said.
The launch of the Soyuz MS-16 spaceship is scheduled to take place on April 9, 2020. The crew originally included Russian cosmonauts Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy. The space journey is set to last for 200 days.