Russia and NASA have agreed to extend the crossover flight program for International Space Station (ISS) by 2025, the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos announced this Thursday.
“To maintain the reliability of the operation of the ISS in general” and ensure the presence of at least one representative from Roscosmos and NASA in the respective segments of the station, “an agreement was reached with the American partners in 2023 to extend the cross flights until 2025 ”, announces Roscosmos in a statement cited by AFP.
Cross flights involve sending an American astronaut to the ISS as part of the crew of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and vice versa – a Russian cosmonaut as part of an American crew.
On July 26, 2022, the Russia announced that it will stop operating the Space Station from 2024but in May 2023 he ended up agreeing to remain on board until 2028.
New Russian orbital station
The creation of a new Russian orbital station was presented as a priority by Roscosmos.
In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the first segment of this new Russian space station it was supposed to be placed in orbit in 2027, promising to continue the conquest of space despite recent setbacks.
The Russian space sector, which has historically been the country’s pride, has suffered for years from funding problems, corruption scandals and failures such as loss of the Luna-25 lunar probe in August.
Partnership that brings together “rival” nations for more than 25 years
A model of international cooperation that brings together Europe, Japan, the United States and Russia, the ISS began to be assembled in 1998. Its end was scheduled for 2024, but NASA estimates that it could operate until 2030.
The ISS is the largest scientific laboratory built outside Earth. It has been in orbit for more than 25 years at around 400 km altitude. The first module was launched on November 20, 1998, but evolution is continuous. It is the largest construction that Man has made outside of Earth in a partnership that brings together “rival” nations.
2023-12-28 09:18:45
#Russia #reaches #agreement #NASA #flights #International #Space #Station
