Washington. November 30th. INTERFAX - An agreement between the American Space Agency and the state corporation Roscosmos on "cross-over" flights may be signed in the near future, Deputy program manager of the International Space Station (ISS) NASA Dana Weigl said on Monday.
"We hope that we will sign something very soon," she said during a press conference dedicated to the upcoming spacewalk of American astronauts from the ISS on Tuesday.
"Our goal has always been for astronauts and cosmonauts to fly on ships of both sides. And these negotiations are progressing very successfully," Weigl said.
"We plan to start this exchange next fall. The goal that both sides are working on is for an astronaut to be able to fly on the fifth SpaceX spacecraft, and then our astronaut would fly on the Soyuz," Weigl said.
For its part, Roscosmos also announced on November 17 that it had reached an agreement in principle with NASA to resume "cross-over" flights.
The Roscosmos State Corporation and NASA have reached an agreement in principle on the resumption of "cross-over" flights, the text of the agreement is being agreed in the government of the Russian Federation, the executive director of Roscosmos for manned programs Sergey Krikalev told Interfax.
"There is a fundamental agreement. There are not even so much technical as documentary problems. Since this is a barter scheme, coordination is underway at the government level: documents are being prepared, words are being clarified, a normal working process is underway," Krikalev said.
On October 6, the head of NASA's ISS program, Joel Montalbano, announced that the United States was preparing an agreement with Roscosmos on "cross-over" flights, the Russian cosmonaut, according to him, could fly on an American ship in the fall of 2022.
On October 29, the head of the NASA manned program, Kathy Luders, stated that Roscosmos and NASA are considering the possibility of joint training for future "cross" flights to the ISS.
Back on March 19, Roscosmos told Interfax that negotiations were underway with NASA on "cross-over" flights, but an agreement has not yet been reached.
In April, the executive director of Roscosmos for manned programs, Sergey Krikalev, told Interfax that the state corporation supports the resumption of "cross-over" flights to the ISS on Russian and American ships.
The Roscosmos annual report for 2020 reported on the preparation of a draft agreement with NASA on "cross-over" flights.
