NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have reached an agreement on space flights to the International Space Station. The deal will allow Russian and American astronauts to fly on spacecraft from the respective organizations.
The cooperation between NASA and Roscosmos has been under a lot of pressure recently because of the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, the two space agencies have come to an agreement. “The agreement benefits both Russia and the United States and underlines the development of a partnership within the context of the ISS,” Roscosmos said in a statement. statement to Reuters.
The first joint flight to the ISS should take place in September; American Frank Rubio accompanies cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin in a Roscosmos-facilitated spaceflight. Later, the Russian Anna Kikina flies along with American and Japanese astronauts in a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
The timing of the deal’s breakthrough is striking, as Russian President Putin this week replaced controversial Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin with a new boss for the space agency. Rogozin was known as an outspoken nationalist. He made some very aggressive statements in response to criticism of the invasion of Ukraine, including the threat to crash the ISS. His replacement is Yuri Borisov, one of Putin’s several deputy prime ministers.