WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2021) A planned summit in Russia between the leaders of NASA and Roscosmos will take place when the COVID-19 pandemic eases, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on Tuesday.
"As soon as possible depending on COVID-19," Nelson told reporters at a press conference when asked about the timing of his planned trip to Moscow to meet Roscosmos chief Dimitry Rogozin.
Rogozin invited Nelson to Russia shortly after he was sworn in as NASA administrator in early May, possibly before the end of 2021. Dubai has also been suggested as a possible site for the two to meet.
Nelson said on Tuesday that scheduling depends on getting past the surge in COVID-19 cases due the Delta variant and other potential coronavirus mutations, but that he wants to go at the earliest possible time.
"I'm very enthusiastic our cooperation with Russia continue," Nelson said. "It's been a model of how nations can come together in peaceful cooperation in space and I think it's important that we keep that model going."
Nelson told Sputnik in August that he hopes to persuade Russia to collaborate with the United States on the NASA-led Lunar Gateway project - a proposed space station orbiting the Moon that would service future flights by humans to Mars and further into deep space.
US-Russian cooperation in space dates back to a joint Apollo-Soyuz mission that sent three US astronauts into space aboard an Apollo spacecraft that docked in orbit with a Soviet-made Soyuz vehicle.
More recently, Russia has indicated it wants to continue its partnership with the United States on the International Space Station as long as the orbiting laboratory is in operation.
