Moscow. December 17th. INTERFAX - The decision to resume flights of European astronauts on Russian Soyuz spacecraft within the framework of the cross-program will be made by the American side, the executive director of Roscosmos for manned programs Sergey Krikalev told Interfax.
"It's up to the Americans to decide," Krikalev said, answering a question about the resumption of flights of European astronauts on the Soyuz.
On November 5, the head of the representative office of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Russia, Rene Pichel, announced that European astronauts could start flying into space again on Russian ships after the conclusion of an agreement on cross-flights between Roscosmos and NASA.
In August 2019, Pishel announced that the agency was suspending the flights of its astronauts on Russian Soyuz.
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 cannot determine on which ships our astronauts will fly to the ISS. In the past, these were shuttles, now they are "Unions". Now NASA is preparing to start using 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.
Later, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, after a meeting with Werner at the MAKS-2019 air show, announced the preparation of such an agreement.
In June of that year, the executive director of Roscosmos for manned programs, Sergey Krikalev, told Interfax that it had not yet been possible to reach a direct agreement.
On November 17, Krikalev told Interfax that the state corporation and NASA had reached an agreement in principle on the resumption of "cross-over" flights, the text of the agreement is being coordinated in the government of the Russian Federation.
On December 15, Rogozin, in an interview with Interfax, said that a new flight within the framework of a cross-program with NASA is scheduled for the fall of 2022.
On December 8, Rogozin reported that Anna Kikina, the only woman in the Roscosmos cosmonaut squad, could become the first Russian cosmonaut to fly to the ISS on the American Crew Dragon spacecraft as part of cross-flights.
