An American-Russian agreement to send an American astronaut to the International Space Station

Russian space authorities and the United States have agreed on an additional flight of the Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft that will carry an American astronaut to the International Space Station, the Interfax news agency reported today, in a rare sign of bilateral cooperation. In a period when relations between the two countries were particularly strained due to the war in Ukraine.

The mission is part of an agreement between the Russian space agency Roskosmos and NASA for joint missions to the International Space Station.

“One American has already stayed (on the ISS) on two missions. We added another flight to make up for the time he spent on the station,” Sergey Krikalev, executive director of manned programs at the state-run agency, told Interfax. .

“This is a mutually beneficial business, we interact with each other and look for the best option. In principle, a good story – the exchange of flights – adds a little credibility to our program,” he said.

Washington and Moscow maintain their cooperation in space even though relations have reached their lowest point in decades due to the war in Ukraine, as astronauts stay together on the International Space Station, and travel to and from it together.

According to an agreement signed last year within the International Space Station program, for intersecting flights, three Russian cosmonauts are scheduled to fly aboard the American Crew Dragon spacecraft and three American astronauts aboard the Russian Soyuz MS spacecraft in the period 2022-2024.

Russia has announced that it will leave the International Space Station and install its own space station at some point in the future, though plans for how and when to do so are still under discussion.

The International Space Station, a science laboratory the size of a football field that orbits about 400 km from Earth, has been inhabited continuously for more than two decades as part of a partnership led by the United States and Russia that also includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.

Russia’s space program was dealt a huge blow this week when the uncrewed Luna 25 spacecraft crashed while trying to land on the moon’s south pole, three days before India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft succeeded.

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