HOUSTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2023) NASA and Roscosmos have not finalized an agreement that will allow astronauts from each space agency to continue sharing spaceflights on their respective commercial crew vehicles, but both sides are working toward reaching a deal, NASA's International Space Station (ISS) Program Manager Joel Montalbano said on Wednesday.
"Right now we're still working with Roscosmos on the swap in the fall of this year. My goal is that we continue the integrated crews. I think it's important for the program and for human spaceflight, so we're not finalized yet on the fall, but we're continuing the work in that direction," Montalbano said during a press conference about the SpaceX Crew-6 mission to the ISS.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will be part of the four-man team that will be aboard the Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-6 mission which is scheduled to launch February 26 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Dragon Mission Management Director Sarah Walker, in response to a question from Sputnik, said it has been an honor for SpaceX to train Roscosmos cosmonauts for its missions to the ISS and looks forward to continued partnership with the Russian space agency.
Moreover, NASA Space Operations Directorate Associate Administrator Kathryn Lueders, added that there will be lots of opportunities for NASA and its international partners to collaborate on future missions to the moon and Mars.
