Russian and US space agencies agree to extend cooperation (VIDEO)
Russia and the US have agreed to continue space cooperation, extending joint operations aboard the International Space Station (ISS), according to the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
On Thursday, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov met acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy in Houston, Texas. The meeting marked the first in person talks between the heads of the two space agencies in eight years.
The two discussed ongoing ISS operations, future lunar missions, and joint deep-space exploration projects.
“The dialogue went well,” Bakanov told reporters after the meeting. “We agreed to continue operating the ISS until 2028,” he said, adding that discussions also covered deorbiting the station by 2030.
The ISS, the largest space station ever built, has orbited Earth since 1998, serving as a unique platform for international scientific research. Despite political tensions over the Ukraine conflict, the ISS remains one of the few spheres of continued cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
Russia had previously indicated it might withdraw from the program after 2024 but later signaled a willingness to continue.
Bakanov said he had invited Duffy to attend a November launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome that will carry an American astronaut. The NASA chief agreed to attend.
A day earlier, the Roscosmos head met with members of NASA’s Crew-11 team, who are preparing to fly to the ISS. The crew includes Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, US astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, and Japan’s Kimiya Yui. Their launch aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft from Kennedy Space Center had been scheduled for Thursday but was postponed just over a minute before liftoff until Friday due to weather conditions.
