After months of negotiations, the U.S. space agency NASA officially announced the extension until 2027 of its agreement with the Russian space agency Roscosmos for cooperation in space travel by astronauts and cosmonauts on their respective shuttles to the International Space Station, ISS. Despite current international tensions, the renewed agreement guarantees the continued presence on the ISS of at least one American and one Russian. The collaboration between the two agencies thus provides for a series of future space missions aboard both the Russian Soyuz capsule and the American vehicles to which cosmonauts and astronauts will be assigned from time to time. The renewal had been in doubt last fall when Roscosmos announced that the Soyuz MS-28 and MS-29 missions would have only Russian cosmonauts on board. Then in an abrupt change of plans a few days ago, NASA announced the assignment of astronaut Chris Williams to the Soyuz MS-28 mission.
About the new agreement, a NASA spokesperson said through the specialized website SpaceNews, “NASA and Roscosmos are continuing the arrangement to enable a second series of integrated manned missions in 2025, and 2026 and a flight with the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft planned for 2027.”
The collaboration between the two agencies also includes a change in the organization of the timing of Soyuz missions, which will be extended from six months to eight with the goal of keeping crews in orbit longer. Roscosmos will then perform only three missions every two years instead of four.
