Saint-Petersburg. June 15. INTERFAX-Roscosmos has not yet concluded a bilateral agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) on flights of European astronauts on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Sergei Krikalev, an adviser to the head of Roscosmos, told Interfax.
"We have all foreign partners, with the exception of short missions like Al-Mansouri (an astronaut from the UAE who flew to the ISS on the Soyuz - IF), fly within the American quota. Europeans fly with us, but they fly within the American quota, " Krikalev said.
In August 2019, the head of the ESA permanent mission in Russia, Rene Pichel, said that the agency was suspending the flights of its astronauts on the Russian"Soyuz". At the same time, Pishel said that ESA could start using Russian ships again if Roscosmos and NASA agree on cross-flights. The head of the agency, Jan Werner, explained this by the specifics of the agreement between ESA and NASA.
"We have an agreement with NASA: we supply them with equipment, and for this they provide us with places according to their quota. We can not determine which ships our astronauts will fly to the ISS. In the past, these were Shuttles, now "Unions". Now NASA is preparing to start using the ships developed by SpaceX and Boeing, "Werner told Interfax.
He also said that the agency will hold talks with Roscosmos on concluding a direct bilateral agreement on the flights of European astronauts on Russian spacecraft.
