First space cooperation since the attack on Ukraine: The USA and Russia agree on so-called cruise flights to the International Space Station ISS. The agreement "corresponds to the interests of Russia and the United States," Moscow said -- and shortly before that the head of the space agency was fired.
The US space agency NASA wants to resume cooperation with Russia on flights to the International Space Station ISS despite the Ukraine war. For security reasons and to ensure "the US presence in space", joint flights by NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts in Russian Soyuz rockets will resume from September, NASA announced. Russian astronauts should therefore be able to use the SpaceX rockets flying on behalf of the USA for the first time.
According to NASA, it is currently planned for two US astronauts to fly in Russian Soyuz rockets on two different space missions. The first of these missions is therefore planned for September. In return, two Russians are to fly in a SpaceX rocket. A corresponding agreement on the entrainment of Russian and American astronauts in the other country's rockets had already been signed on Thursday, Russia's space agency Roskosmos also announced on Telegram. "The agreement corresponds to the interests of Russia and the United States," the authority in Moscow said.
After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the West imposed sanctions on the Russian space agency Roskosmos. However, the collaboration continued on the ISS. However, the then Roskosmos boss Dmitry Rogozin had threatened in February that Russia could withdraw from the project in view of Western sanctions and crash the space station on Earth.
Just before the US announced that cooperation would be resumed, the Kremlin announced the dismissal of Rogozin, who had been in office since 2018. The new head of the Russian space agency will be Vice Prime Minister Yuri Borisov. He was previously responsible within the government for the military-industrial complex. In Russia, this also includes space travel. Rogozin, who has presented himself as a staunch nationalist and a keen supporter of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, should be offered a new job "soon", said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. However, he did not provide any further details.
The ISS is a joint project of the USA, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia. It is divided into a Russian and a US segment. For a time, after discontinuing its space shuttle program, NASA was entirely dependent on ride-along opportunities in Russian Soyuz rockets. In the meantime, however, it can use rockets from the private US space company SpaceX for manned missions to the ISS.
