Russia, NASA to continue joint space flights until 2025
Russia, NASA to continue cooperation in joint space flights until 2025 (twitter.com)
Russia and the United States are continuing to collaborate in transporting crews to the International Space Station (ISS) as Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos declares that the partnership for cross-flights will persist until 2025, according to Engadget.
Cross-flights mean sending crews from different countries on the same spacecraft. At least one U.S. spaceman is going to the ISS as part of the crew of a Russian spacecraft, and one Russian astronaut as part of an American crew.
Roscosmos explains the decision was made "to maintain the reliability of the ISS as a whole."
NASA-Russia cooperation
The ISS was established in 1998, marking a symbolic U.S.-Russia cooperation after the Cold War and the space race came to an end.
But after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022, the United States began to tear apart its ties with Moscow in various cooperation fields amid great political tension.
However, in April 2023 NASA released a statement confirming Russia's continued presence on the ISS until 2028, even though earlier, Yury Borisov, the director of Roscosmos, had suggested that Russia might withdraw from the ISS "after 2024" to focus on developing its own space station. Despite these challenges, the U.S. space agency is committed to maintaining the ISS until at least 2030.
In early October, a Russian module attached to the International Space Station faced challenges as a leak occurred, resulting in the release of fluids into space. This coolant leak is the third major leak from a Russian spacecraft on the ISS over the past 12 months.
