NASA and Roskosmos signed an agreement on flight integration

"The agreement is in the interests of Russia and the US and will promote the development of cooperation within the ISS program," the Roscosmos press release states, adding that it will facilitate "space exploration for peaceful purposes."

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Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos have signed an agreement to integrate flights on the International Space Station, allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly on American-made spacecraft in exchange for American astronauts being able to fly on Russian ones, the agencies said today.

"The agreement is in the interests of Russia and the US and will promote the development of cooperation within the ISS program," Roscosmos said in a statement, adding that it will facilitate "space exploration for peaceful purposes," reports Reuters.

The first integrated flights under the new agreement will take place in September, NASA said, with American astronaut Frank Rubio launching to the space station from the Moscow-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, along with two cosmonauts, Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin.

In exchange, cosmonaut Anna Kikina will join two American astronauts and one Japanese astronaut on a SpaceX flight to the orbiting laboratory, launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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