Although relations between Russia and the USA are tense, the two countries continue their cooperation in sending crews to the International Space Station (ISS). Russia’s national space agency Roscosmos announced that it will continue to collaborate with NASA on cross flights until 2025.
Crossover flights involve crews from more than one country being put on the same spacecraft. Roscosmos always aims to have at least one of its own representatives on the Russian section of the ISS and at least one NASA representative on the US section. The agency added that this decision was made “to protect the reliability of the ISS as a whole.” Launched in 1998, the ISS became a symbol of US-Russia cooperation following the end of the Cold War and the space race.
The news comes after NASA announced in April 2023 that Russia would remain on the ISS until 2028. Roscosmos Director General Yuri Borisov has previously said that Russia will withdraw from the ISS “after 2024” to focus on building its own space station. NASA, on the other hand, was preparing for Russia’s departure with plans ranging from Russia withdrawing astronauts from the ISS to figuring out how to control the ISS if Russia took away its thrusters. Let us note that NASA has committed to maintaining the ISS until at least 2030.
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