Russia and the US have agreed to extend their agreement for joint flights to the International Space Station (ISS). In July and December, both sides signed two additional agreements to continue crossover flights until 2025, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Thursday.
The objective is to maintain the “reliability of the ISS operation”, Roscosmos further explained. This also ensures that at least one NASA astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut are on the station.
The ISS, which has orbited the Earth since 1998, is one of the few areas in which Russia and the US still cooperate, even after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. Its operation was originally planned until 2024, but the North American space agency NASA does not want to decommission them by 2030. However, Roskosmos had already announced in July 2022 that it would withdraw from the project after 2024. Instead, Moscow is planning its own space station.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in October that the first Russian space station module would be launched into space in 2027. At the same time, he promised to maintain previous space travel goals despite recent setbacks; including, above all, the Russian lunar program.