Posted: Sat, Mar 20, 2021, 12:54 PM ET (1654 GMT)
A NASA astronaut launching to the International Space Station next month could stay there for up to a year. Mark Vande Hei will fly to the station on the Soyuz MS-18 mission launching April 9 after NASA worked out a deal for the seat through an agreement with Axiom Space. Because the following Soyuz mission, scheduled for October, may carry two people filming a movie on the station, Vande Hei and Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov could have to remain on the station until the next crew rotation mission, which would be as late as April 2022. In a call with reporters Monday, Vande Hei confirmed the possibility of an extended stay, but said he was "really enthusiastic" about doing so, calling it "an opportunity for a new life experience."

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