

Russian-built Soyuz rockets no longer fly out of Europe's Spaceport in South America, for example, and Russia doesn't sell rocket engines to American companies anymore. The ISS partnership is one of the few Russian space collaborations that hasn't splintered in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. Krikalev responded simply and concisely: "The answer is yes." "I wonder if it's part of a concerted effort to ease the tensions that arose under and to turn down the temperature a bit." "It seems like you're both making a real effort to smooth over relations with NASA and to demonstrate that you're very committed to the partnership," Davenport said to Krikalev, referring to statements made recently by him and Borisov. This tone is quite different than the one Roscosmos evinced under Rogozin, as Washington Post reporter Christian Davenport noted during Wednesday's Crew-5 postlaunch briefing. NASA condemns Russia's use of space station for propaganda Russia dismisses space agency chief in wake of international controversies NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 astronauts ready for historic mission "I want to mention that we just continue what was started many years ago in 1975, when the Apollo-Soyuz crew worked together," he said, referring to the landmark Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission. 21.ĭuring a press conference Wednesday after the Crew-5 launch, Krikalev hailed the seat swap as a "new phase of our cooperation" and stressed that such cooperation has deep roots. The other seat in that initial swap deal was occupied by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who launched to the orbiting lab with two cosmonauts aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Sept. One of the four Crew-5 crewmates is cosmonaut Anna Kikina, who is flying to the ISS under a seat-swap agreement that NASA and Roscosmos announced in July. 5) during the launch of SpaceX's Crew-5 astronaut mission for NASA. That cooperation was on display Wednesday (Oct. And the Roscosmos chief has said that an exit is unlikely before 2028 (opens in new tab), the earliest possible year that Russia's planned Earth-orbiting space station could get up running.įormer cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos' executive director of human spaceflight programs, has also emphasized the importance of cooperation between the Russian space agency and its American counterpart.

Borisov has reiterated Russia's desire to leave the ISS program, but he has stressed that this will happen " after 2024" as part of a highly regulated process.
